Divinity: Original Sin 2 patch adds devious AI 2.0 system

Revisiting Divinity: Original Sin 2 in Early Access will be harder experience after today, thanks to Larian’s introduction of an AI-boosting patch. The snappily named Patch v3.0.31.292 adds an ‘AI 2.0’ system, making the NPC combat encounters a lot more taxing.

As explained in the Kickstarter update video (below), this update makes the AI much more aware of its surroundings and environmental situations it can exploit. It’ll make better use of (say) explosive oil barrels, potential debuffs, and will also duck itself out of range of return fire or possible environmental hazards. Interestingly, the video goes over a few examples of the AI thinking outside the box and using things like Rage (intended as a buff) as an actual debuff on foes.

At present, it sounds like the AI is intentionally tuned to be very difficult. Larian say they are “aware this will feel more like our hard core Tactician mode”, but want plenty of feedback to help them “tweak the numbers correctly”. If some players are finding too easy, they want to know about that too. Ultimately, it sounds like certain AI capabilities will be toggled on or off according to the difficulty level a player chooses in the final release version; but first Larian need to collect lots of lovely data.

The new patch is extensive (see beneath the video for full patch notes), so older Divinity: Original Sin 2 saved games will no longer be compatible. It’s possible to regress to a previous beta if you wish to just continue on with your current save. Instructions on how to do that are in the post linked in the first sentence (it’s the usual Steam beta opt-in dance).

Larian also say they have a release date ‘in mind’ for Original Sin 2, but that concrete details of that won’t be announced for another couple of months (in case schedules change and so on).

Improvements

• AI 2.0. Integrated new AI system for all enemies
• AI has received a big overhaul. In general it should be a lot smarter and have more awareness of its surroundings. This means that the AI might have gotten a bit more difficult to deal with, so don’t underestimate your enemies and especially watch your positioning! Your enemies will make better use of barrels, surfaces, and combat control skills, and they’ll have better knowledge of the consequences of casting particular skills. Planning ahead is now more important than ever.
• Loot system overhaul
• Find less gear in random loot, but more gold and valuables. The idea is to get economy going and make trade more important. Uniquely hand-placed items and boss loot should feel more rewarding and rare. You HAVE to go shopping!
• Added three new arenas
• Forbidden Valley
• Enemy at the Gates
• Ravenshaw Mansion
• Added AI 2.0 to arenas
• You can now choose which starting class recruited companions should be, making it easier to compose the best-balanced party
• Removed durability from armor
• Weapon durability now only decreases when attacking objects
• Reduced AoE radius of most area spells to promote tactical gameplay
• Improved talk animation for female humans
• New melee attack animations for all races
• Improved female lizard skill animations
• Improved several item textures throughout the level
• Improved animations for several skills
• Improved list of usable items that should automatically get added to the bottom bar
• Improved Soul Jars: they now check if the player still has their Source collar before letting them absorb the soul in the jars
• Improved Burn My Eyes tooltip to include that it removes Terrified, Sleeping, Enraged
• Improved fog effects
• Updated several UI sound effects

Balancing and design changes

• Invisibility is now removed by Frozen, Petrified, Stunned, Knocked Down, Taunted, Sleeping, Wet
• Invisibility is no longer removed by all surfaces, except if they damage you
• Fortified status should now remove burning
• Poison damage no longer automatically contaminates puddles
• Wielding single wand now applies bonus from single handed ability
• Players receive their second Civil Point at level two. After that, they receive a point every four levels
• Weapon skills now show ‘chance to hit’ when hovering over a target
• All chests can now be moved and picked up, except special arena chests
• All containers that should be pick-up-able, now are (improved weight stats)
• Ground Smash now uses damage of equipped weapon
• Increased duration of Burning, Poisoned and Bleeding for most skills because these statuses no longer deal one tick of damage when applied for the first time
• Description of ‘Rested’ status now mentions that it protects from certain harmful statuses
• Added a new defensive ability, Perseverance, that allows characters to regain part of their armor after being controlled by a status
• Surfaces and clouds no longer disappear automatically. Exceptions: fire (2 turns), smoke (1 turn)
• You can no longer spot characters in sneak mode while preparing a skill
• Sneaking cones now show on all characters that can spot you, rather than just the ones that see you
• Incapacitated NPCs can no longer spot the player while the player is in sneak mode. Similarly, incapacitated players can no longer spot sneaking enemies.
• Damage statuses no longer tick damage on applying
• Set equip cost for all slots to 1 AP
• Trompdoy is now immune to poison and bleeding
• Purging Wands and Braccus Helm now give Source Disruption skill

Additions

• Added and updated visual effects:
• Elemental weapon impacts
• Several grenades and arrows
• Several skills throughout campaign and in Arena Mode
• Added and improved several sounds for skills and usable items
• Added weapon swoosh effects that scale with the level of your weapon abilities (Example: Single-handed weapons will have a bigger swoosh at single-handed level five)
• Added map marker from Delorus, after you choose to heal him
• Added new effect for Party Reflection Dialogs and stopped these dialogs from appearing during combat
• Added new type of pitchfork to weapon treasure
• Added new simple tools weapon types to weapon treasure (mallet, pickaxe, scythe, pitchfork)
• Added several journal updates for quests in Fort Joy area
• Added new necklace types to treasure generation
• Added being able to sell junk in the trade window

Bug Fixes

• Fixed random seed not being reset when loading a savegame. Happy save scumming!
• Fixed several signs that were no longer legible
• Fixed errors in status animations for male humans
• Fixed Bahara position at seeker camp. Some players were getting “can’t reach” message when trying to interact with her
• Fixed incorrect reflection boost getting added to equipment
• Fixed issue with XP reward in multiplayer for “The Imprisoned Elf” quest
• Fixed blind status causing player to miss even after the status wore off
• Fixed non-weapon items not showing critical hit chance
• Fixed possible crash when unloading a level
• Fixed crash when a client player would press highlight characters button without having assigned characters
• Fixed issue with initial dialogs of Gawin and Leste
• Fixed the equipment of one of Trompdoy’s illusions
• Fixed dialogs for certain characters after they had already met (example: Red Prince and Stingtail dialog)
• Fixed Gawin dying prematurely during one of his teleports
• Fixed Amyro becoming hostile if he is teleported out of his cell
• Fixed issue with resurrected characters causing arena match to end prematurely
• Fixed issue with Void Worm not spawning in the final fight of Fort Joy
• Fixed crash when player was committing a crime and then loading a savegame right after
• Fixed Gratiana’s dialog if Gareth is already dead when the Seekers gather before the final fight
• Fixed hotbar positions of the button hints after reassigning keyboard shortcuts
• Fixed Gratiana’s dialog if you had the Wand and had delivered the Soul Jar to her already
• Fixed issue with Gareth’s dialog before the final fight. In some cases, he would not leave behind companions for the player to help during the battle
• Fixed a crash when destroying specific chests containing cloth loot
• Fixed Historian joining combat involuntarily in Fort Joy Swamps area
• Fixed the boat to escape Fort Joy still being visually present for other players after one player had already used it
• Fixed items disappearing when you left them in certain containers and tried to recover them after leaving the area
• Fixed several items not having an icon
• Fixed items getting removed from hotbar when switching from dual wield to two-handed
• Fixed Comeback Kid talent so it correctly saves the player character with 1 hp left
• Fixed Telekinesis beam effect not disappearing
• Fixed burning pigs not reacting correctly when receiving Blessed status
• Fixed multiplayer issues with Saheila quest
• Fixed being able to talk to Zaleskar’s mirror after killing him
• Fixed Charmed status description
• Fixed possible infinite fire surface
• Fixed Tarlene’s dialogue after you save Gareth
• Fixed issue that Source collars would not show up after getting resurrected in Arena
• Fixed necromancers not attacking after you destroy Necromancer Rask’s Soul Jar
• Fixed projectiles sometimes colliding with roofs
• Fixed several incorrect imprisonment scenarios
• Fixed several issues with necromancer maze
• Fixed issue with curse status getting stuck on character after receiving it via items like Braccus’ ring
• Fixed issue with starting skills not updating in character creation screen
• Fixed being able to pickpocket all loot by pressing space bar when ‘take all’ button is disabled
• Fixed smoke clouds not blocking vision anymore after loading
• Fixed gold in containers not being included in trade window, while the containers are in the player’s inventory
• Fixed being able to get a Talent without meeting its requirements in the character creation screen
• Fixed Attribute bonuses from equipment so they correctly count towards requirements for equipping items
• Fixed Leadership not working on allies in multiplayer
• Fixed surface damage reflect. This should not happen anymore.
• Fixed several issues with Buddy the dog
• Fixed several minor dialogue inconsistencies in and around Fort Joy
• Fixed Voidwoken Drillworm spawning in incorrect locations