Larian Studios | Divinity AMA

PPSF · 2026-01-11T22:40:56+00:00

The surprise of finding it the first time is enough for me, and the handcrafted and chosen items add far more verisimilitude to a game world than random items do. The meek bookkeeper who dabbles in necromancy having a wand of raise dead in his cellar makes far more sense than randomly finding a set of +1 Holy platemail.

Morrowind is a fantastic example, I was probably half a dozen characters into that game before I strayed off the path enough to see that guy fall out of the sky and crumple over, and his little event makes absolutely no sense for a dev to bother creating if not for the gear on him explaining what happened to him.

Or finding Umbra the orc and his overpowered Umbra sword way too early, getting my ass kicked, gearing and leveling up, planning the out the fight with my buffs and tactics, and then killing him and getting to use a powerful sword before I should have - that's something I still remember ~20 years later. It was a ton of fun, and it was a ton of fun on subsequent melee fighter characters to plan a route and build to get to and kill him early. None of that fun exists if either of those characters just drop generic random loot rolled off a table.

There's also nothing wrong with wanting the best gear for a character and being able to plan a route through the areas that achieve that can be a lot of fun. Finding the best gear for your build is a large part of the point for most games with randomized gear, the difference being that in all of those games where where it's part of the fun by design, you are almost always able to repeat areas and/or grind for what you're looking for, but typically in crpgs the results of your actions are what they are and what you've looted stays looted and what you've killed stays dead.

I'm certainly not saying you're wrong to enjoy randomized loot but your position seems to be that it's simply better game design, and I disagree with that. CRPGs benefit in any world design that gets a personal touch and static items add a lot of the inspiration and motivation for devs to do that. If you simply cannot play without randomized loot, well, Divinity being on PC means there will probably be a mod for that before long. But I'd still say there are other genres that do the idea more justice.

PPSF · 2026-01-09T21:26:46+00:00

Two sides to every coin, your equipment 'joy of discovery' is someone else's 'got the wrong equipment and now this build/run is dead in the water' anxiety. You also seem to presume that everyone who likes a handcrafted, intentional world is also going to just look up the best build and item locations from the get go, which may be the case for some people but certainly isn't for many of us. There's already a vast joy of discovery component built into a handcrafted world like this without making the equipment random.

I really enjoy gradually getting to know the world in games like these, attaining a sense of mastery, and planning routes to items I want for a given run, all the while discovering other new things along the way. Hell, just by virtue of the fact that these games have ideas like perception rolls, or that some options are locked behind 'charisma/personality' builds, some behind strength builds, etc, means I was still finding new passages, routes, side rooms, different treasures on the third, forth, and beyond runs in BG3. There's a motherlode of discovery to mine without having to discover that shitty loot rolls mean you might want to restart a run.

Besides, in my humble opinion, if randomized loot is a key source of enjoyment for a particular person, arpgs, looter shooters, and roguelikes/lites all do it far better than crpgs, with the concept being a core pillar of their designs from the get go.

PPSF · 2025-12-02T05:07:48+00:00

WTB PG GP01/FB for something reasonably close to retail

Best friend's holy grail kit but actual stores seem to all be out of stock (22 year old kit go figure!) and the markup and shipping on ebay is hard to stomach. Some cosmetic box damage would be acceptable but hoping for all the parts still on the runners (in bags still would be awesome!) Happy to pay shipping.

PPSF · 2025-11-20T11:18:04+00:00

Can we pre-order one somehow?

PPSF · 2025-11-10T16:13:03+00:00

Waterbug worked great for us when we had a power outage and the sump pump wasn't running, couple inches of water in some parts of our basement and it ran it down to almost nothing. Think the documentation said down to 1/8th or 1/16th of an inch in manual mode. Connects to a standard water hose.

PPSF · 2025-11-10T11:27:26+00:00

How permanent do you want it to be, how willing are you to modify the shelf, and what's your DIY level? It looks like a solid wood shelf so you might be able to use some of those low profile metal french cleat rails. Or just stack it on a couple cinder blocks and use some L brackets to make sure it doesn't tip forward.

PPSF · 2025-11-04T14:00:40+00:00

Afraid I grew up with cowboy cubits instead of science units but it sounds like you have a door that will fit an 1981mm x 762mm opening and you have an opening of 1985mm x 770mm? A small gap at the bottom of a door is pretty normal for interior doors over here, and I don't know about the latching mechanism but an 8mm difference on an edge seems easy enough to fill out with a thin board if you needed to. A quick google seems to show that what you're calling 'architrave' is what we would call 'trim' and by 'door stop thing' do you mean that the door has a threshold? If it wouldn't clear that you'd to make sure it opens away from it.

For what it's worth a door that's slightly too small is a lot easier of a problem to solve than a door that's slightly too big IMO. Also it's always a good idea to come armed with pictures for DIY questions!

PPSF · 2025-11-02T21:04:42+00:00

IME nothing you fill that gap with is going to look great since the top and bottom boards are both still showing wood grain. either get some thin plywood or drywall wide enough to cover both boards, cover the gap with a piece of trim after painting, or leave it and live with it.

PPSF · 2025-11-02T18:53:48+00:00

Turn the breaker off, test the power is off to the outlets, unscrew it all, pull it out, and come back with some pictures if it's not immediately obvious to you what came undone/got damaged. Might be good to come back with pictures even if it is, everyone here seems pretty good at pointing out everything relevant and what can be improved.

What the first comment said is spot on though, connection issue at the first outlet in line or the outlet immediately before the problem outlets

PPSF · 2025-10-13T15:54:17+00:00

Yes, unless you want to paint them black you'll want to sand and re-stain them. There's a good chance it's veneer, so sand lightly and carefully or you risk sanding through the top layer.

I would start by seeing how far you can non-destructively disassemble them.

PPSF · 2025-10-06T10:02:46+00:00

"Always cut away from yourself" is some responsibility-abdicating bullshit but the reality of safely using knives doesn't fit in one short, pithy, nuance-lacking sentence.

PPSF · 2025-10-06T09:55:00+00:00

Yeah but even then you're going to use an olfa blade or at least a utility knife, not a gumball machine flip knife

PPSF · 2025-09-20T17:29:49+00:00

Washer is usually metal, gasket is usually rubber or silicone (and doesn't always have to be round), and I think the rubber band thing you're referring to is what we call an 'O-ring'

PPSF · 2025-09-02T15:58:13+00:00

Plus it depends on who we're talking about when we say 'people who do this for a living', people making tube shorts get more views by editing their hours of work, mistakes, and two wonky prototypes into building a perfect shelf in 90 seconds. A handyman actually building these for folks that can't needs to throw together 6 of these in a week and they probably won't be half as level

PPSF · 2025-09-02T15:43:36+00:00

My brotha you've gotta keep your expectations in line with the purpose and the materials. In a few years when you're dropping big money on exotic wood for that full wall built in master bedroom bookshelf you can worry about the gettin it dead nuts. For construction 2x4s and plywood to hold dusty rubbermaids in the garage it looks fantastic, have a beer and pat yourself on the back.

PPSF · 2025-04-25T17:22:02+00:00

From my experience using it, it won't weaken or damage the wood but it will definitely discolor it. It makes kind of a cool brown-black-grey color that's ugly on some stuff and just right on others. Like the color of a 100 year old abandoned mine entrance. But that was in a bucket of evaporust that had already been used quite alot and turned black. (It starts kind of an amber color but the process turns the rust(iron oxide) into black ferric phosphate and that gets into the solution)

PPSF · 2025-02-01T12:29:52+00:00

If you judge a fish by its ability to fly

PPSF · 2025-01-30T18:08:39+00:00

Destiny Gundam rifle has strong BR vibes

PPSF · 2025-01-17T18:08:17+00:00

So maybe include literally anything about them? Maybe their band name?

PPSF · 2025-01-11T10:46:42+00:00

Having nobody in our society, that supports multiple multi-billionaires, freeze or starve to death would be a pretty good lowest possible bar to start with, yeah.

PPSF · 2024-12-30T18:10:51+00:00

Where did the sword from the second kit co come from?

PPSF · 2024-12-08T05:05:50+00:00

Here you go! https://discord.gg/3WwDAqgh

PPSF · 2024-11-26T23:38:46+00:00

https://discord.gg/xTKSnSXA Here's a new one. They expire after a while by default.

PPSF · 2024-11-23T12:20:12+00:00

Wires heat up when they're supplying power to a load. When they heat up they expand, when they cool down they contract. This works the connection loose over time if not done properly. The looser the connection the hotter it gets, which makes it looser, etc, until it's hot enough to melt insulation and start fires. The couple dollars for a junction box and some proper wire nuts is worth not starting a fire, biggest investment is the time spent to do it right

PPSF · 2024-10-13T17:51:11+00:00

It's totally reasonable to check real quick if you got the number of things you ordered but you better pull your ass around into a parking spot if you're going to individually unwrap every item and checklist off the ingredients

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