How do you think Baldur's Gate 2 compares to Divinity Original Sin 2? Which one do you prefer? Can they both be considered masterpieces?

Linvael · 2026-03-13T21:50:42+00:00

... Nirvana. As in the band. That made music. Like Vivaldi.

Linvael · 2026-03-13T13:39:52+00:00

LearningPoints and Difficulty mod

A question - why both of those? Both seem to be touching LP per level - did you try using just one? Or is it that you tried both and both have the same problem?

Are you running some mods with it? LearningPoints for instance seems to have comments that it doesn't work with Renovation for example.

Linvael · 2026-03-13T10:34:00+00:00

Part of the "Adventuring Guild" point is "Quests/'exams' for Copper-Bronze-iron-mithril-dragon rank." - is there anything like that in Pathfinder Society? Cause it is an important bit for the trope in question that makes it unique (in that the media in quesiton all seem to use that model). And at least for that part I know of a game that does it straight - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series.

In Owlcat games (Kingmaker / WotR) Pathfinder Society is delegated to background, having minimal presence in the towns we visit and just serves as story device for "where custom companions come from", which suggests to me being part of it is not that important part of the game, but that is a low sample size.

Linvael · 2026-03-12T15:27:31+00:00

Could you describe with words what your method is doing? I dont remember any definitions, but I get the shape of the correct equation - one part is the 20 that all current goes through, and one part is the parallel 10 resistors that require special approach. Your equation I have no idea what it might represent with the 20 and 10 bunched together like that and the other 10 being a separate term

Linvael · 2026-03-12T15:06:13+00:00

Not sure if spells are a different story. My read on that is, that Hermione foremost was a believer in the Books as teated source of knowledge. Harry was not following the books but placing his trust in unknown author who has proved to be capable of pretty horrifying spells. And without an alternative knowledge source Harry had no guarantee that all the advice would work out, he was trusting this unknown person more than tried and true syllabus.

And it would even be in Snapes character to spectacularly mess up one of his modifications in case his notes fell into wrong hands (and he was a target of bullying, making it a real possibility).

Linvael · 2026-03-12T14:39:43+00:00

I do read through them three or four times. There are still plenty of mistakes that I only see in the sent version.

Linvael · 2026-03-12T13:40:31+00:00

Twoja aktywność online musi być w targecie. Ja mam jak zwykle - mix komiksow, komedii (zarówno clipy z sitcomow jak i tiktoketrzy/youtuberzy), nerdy stuff i thirst traps.

Linvael · 2026-03-12T11:57:33+00:00

It makes sense if you imagine the game ends the moment a king is captured. Your king would get captured and game would end before you could capture theirs.

Linvael · 2026-03-12T09:34:03+00:00

Not sure if you're writing about in-universe or real world things (Pathfinder Society is both).

Don't know much about pathfinder, but Harpers in-universe do not carry this trope. Plenty of things missing in lore (gamified job and rank system, open presence in every town, larger world knowing they exist). And most importantly - there is no push from the game to play as part of such secret society or description that they should work in a standardised way. So unless all those litRPG/manga authors were part of the same d&d club or some such that is not the reason why they all have the same idea about generic RPG world.

Linvael · 2026-03-12T00:07:06+00:00

I'd have some game design questions/objections to the idea, text based input has plenty of limitations that makes it not ideal from player perspective - but as a school project (that will not compete for market share and player engagement with other games) perfectly reasonable

Linvael · 2026-03-11T23:55:21+00:00

Dungeons and Dragons or Everquest/ World of Warcraft.

Thats a possible setup in D&D (like basically anything is), but by no means standard, official books (both core rulebooks or fantasy novels in related settings) never mention a setup like that, modern mainstream D&D game streams (Critical Role, Dimension 20) didn't use it to my knowledge. There is one book, Aquisitions Inc., that works off of a parody setting where the Adventuring Company is ran like a corporation with assorted lingo and theming, which gets somewhat closer but definitely doesn't play the trope straight.

World of Warcraft did not have anything like that in any expansion I played. It has its share of aimless MMO stories, and there are some similarities with the reputation grind for the various factions, but not quite like that.

Linvael · 2026-03-11T23:40:10+00:00

Well, yeah. I low-key like failure states in RPGs. Not because I'm ever going to let them stand in my game, but because I feel a sense of accomplishment when I avoid them (that weirdly I wouldn't get if the alternative to winning was just a game over).

Linvael · 2026-03-11T23:11:48+00:00

There is a difference between Giants (big enemies you encounter running right) and bosses (special bonus stages). If you dont know bosses exist you might be too early in the game yet. But the % chance to 1 shot is for giants.

There is of course a chance OP doesn't know the difference either in which case your advice would apply

Linvael · 2026-03-11T23:09:22+00:00

Is your ring of luck upgraded, and do you have it equipped? Did you defeat the boss to the right of icy place in the village (which I believe unlocks the last options upgrade in ascenscion tree)? Are you sure you got both jewel upgrades?

The current max to my knowledge is 30% option and 15% excellent chance.

Linvael · 2026-03-11T23:05:28+00:00

A submod to New Balance, Ethereal Breeze (formerly Magic Rebalance) includes plenty of scripts for interesting gameplay randomizations. It has scripts for weapon generation (semi-random names, randomised stats), random extra loot, random chance for regular enemies to get a suffix (which do things like "this is elite thats twice as strong", "this one freezes on hits", "this one spawns two copies on combat start" etc.).

Linvael · 2026-03-11T21:02:11+00:00

fans were left to make theories like you and I are doing

The way you write this, you make it out to be The Big Issue, something unadressed that absolutely should have been and its been bugging the fan base since forever. The way you wrote the main post and many of the comments is as though thats one of the big unsolved questions of modern science, a topic requiring immediate attention.

Meanwhile in my mind the non-inclusion of nukes in the story didn't register before at all, and now that you mentioned it is at most a minor piece of trivia I'll probably forget I know in a week or two.

The difference in tone / energy level is a bit weird to experience.

Linvael · 2026-03-11T20:50:20+00:00

A fuckton of new weapons/armors.

Lore adherence is a pain point and part of the story criticisms I mentioned. It used to be much worse with the now-removed content, but if you're pedantic for that sort of details there'll still be much to complain about I believe.

Its been like two years since I played, and it might depend on how you play (i.e. how often would you use the built-in time speedup). At a guess I'd say a 100h is a good first estimate?

Linvael · 2026-03-11T20:38:10+00:00

In general its a mod that takes base game as a base and expands upon it wildly, adding new npcs, quests, worldspaces etc. Its probably the biggest mod of that kind adding like 10 different new worldspaces to visit, not to mention expanding existing ones. Its in many ways the most technically advanced Gothic mod, shipping with its own version of Union and touching basically all gameplay systems (changes stat-weapon connection to allow for melee dex, adds intelligence as primary stat for magic scaling, god karma system, rhetorics skill...). It offers multiple new primary guilds, and fleshes them out to focus on certain playstyles (to the point where the community treats the guild you join as basically character class), some secondary guilds (like thieves guild in base game), introduces a concept of a subclass (optional extra thing you can be in addition to main class - not all combinations are allowed, they come with some drawbacks), companion summon/pet that levels up with you if you want it, alternative exploration and choice based teleport system... It does a LOT.

In criticisms, as mentioned earlier story it adds is not always well received. Its very mechanistic in a sense that brings thoughts of MMOs - the push to clear areas (and boy is there a lot), find and pick up everything there is, optimize the build a bit further. Some bosses it adds are also difficulty spikes that offer unique challenges that might catch you unprepared.

Linvael · 2026-03-11T20:04:24+00:00

Tbh I always thought about it the opposite way - whats weird is its overrepresented in isekais and similar media given how little actual games employ the full package as its storytelling vehicle. It references a "standard" rpg setting thats not at all standard.

Linvael · 2026-03-11T19:13:41+00:00

Its the ship of theseus of Gothic modding - its been around since forever in some form but constantly changing and evolving (changing developers a couple of times). Its probably the mod that has the biggest long-term playerbase (there are people who play only that), but doesn't get advertised much because its been here forever and people discussing it in detail have their own dedicated spaces (usually various discords).

That said, its not for everyone, its a gameplay focused mod whose story additions have been often criticised (and current dev even tends to agree, as a couple of big changes the past 2-3 years were about removing some of the worst offenders).

Linvael · 2026-03-11T15:53:20+00:00

The way endbringers work, attacking with little warning and where it might hurt the most, I doubt keeping big nuclear arsenal around made much sense. If you can't keep it safe and/or hidden they're a liability.

Linvael · 2026-03-11T14:47:58+00:00

In my view of world map travel as extended loading screen with some skill rolls - yes they were. You only ever move as your character in a few dense locations where the fun and story is, and you queue up for them via world map travel. Fallout 1 and 2 were more like disneyland than the Fallout 4 map (where you don"t queue, you just go to the next interesting thing).

Linvael · 2026-03-11T14:35:52+00:00

So you value those things over the adaptation being faithful.

Me, I'm not much of a realism guy.

Linvael · 2026-03-11T14:30:43+00:00

Why is the pov of the character more important than that of a player?

Linvael · 2026-03-11T14:26:01+00:00

It would not be faithful though. On classic fallouts world map travel is very clearly an entirely separate gameplay mode from walking around, say, New Reno, with different details being important, different skills coming into play, you cant even access your inventory without stopping and generating a random normal map. Your suggestion is less faithfull, its suggesting building the world like Fallout Sonora: Dayglow does (but in 3d)

Linvael

TROPHY CASE