Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga

Edit history:

SDAVerification: 2017-08-22 12:57:51 pm

2017-08-03 04:02:38 am

Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/Divinity2DKS.html

Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga (pc) (pc) [Any %] [Single Segment]

Decision: Accept

Congratulations to Marcel Kalmes!

Thread title:

SDAVerification

2017-08-03 04:02:38 am

Run Information

Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga (pc) (pc) [Any %] [Single Segment]

Verification Files

http://v.speeddemosarchive.com/Divinity2DKS-20170722/

Please refer to the Verification Guidelines before posting.

Please post your opinions about the run and be certain to conclude your post with a verdict (Accept/Reject). If you wish to remain anonymous, you can also send a pm with your reply to 'sdaverification' (please state clearly in that case which run you have verified). This is not a contest where the majority wins - Each verification will be judged on its content.

LotBlind

Edit history:

LotBlind: 2017-08-20 02:19:15 pm

LotBlind: 2017-08-15 12:17:09 pm

2017-08-14 12:52:12 pm

I'll start watching this soon... looks like a pretty long run tho.

EDIT: What's the run time estimate, please?

EDIT EDIT: I just don't think I'll have it in me to watch this in any reasonable length of time after all. Sorry.

IsraeliRD

Edit history:

IsraeliRD: 2017-08-17 10:39:57 am

IsraeliRD: 2017-08-17 10:37:21 am

IsraeliRD: 2017-08-17 10:35:50 am

IsraeliRD: 2017-08-17 10:31:30 am

IsraeliRD: 2017-08-17 10:29:36 am

2017-08-16 04:56:12 am

Dragon Power Supreme

The run took a week to get through (timing is fun, yo). The run itself is quite entertaining for me which helps out.

A/V is solid. I want XQ though Sad

The route is essentially the same in both runs, with the required quests completed in order to progress. The only real difference between the two runs is in the second half of the game (Flames of Vengeance) where the new run does not free Behrlihn from his prison. This alone means Behrlihn isn't battled against at the very end (along with Ygerra), which drops the final fight's time from 8:35 to 1:09 minutes!!! Mind you, Ygerra also healed herself a fair bit during the fight as well, but that is unavoidable.

Movement through the game also differs, with the new run opting for side-rolling as much as possible, whereas the old run just jumps forwards. I can't comment a lot, but it looks smoother.
Chosen skills differ a fair bit between the two. The current run puts points in Fatality only at the very end against Ygerra and Behrlihn, whereas the new one puts points much more earlier. New skills shown are Battle Rage and health regen. Both runs use Life Leech, Dual-Wielding Expertise, Regenerate and Healing. However the new run opts for Healing over Regenerate.
Fatality plays a big role, since you can kill an enemy with some of his HP left in one shot. Example: you can kill a boss with 20% HP left using this skill. As the new run gets it earlier, it also opts to kill bosses earlier using this skill. You can also tell it gets used thanks to the spam of "you cannot perform Fatality on this enemy yet". The new run ends up with 10 points on this skill, totalling 37% of the hitpoints.

In terms of the character itself, differences are also noticeable: both runs end up as Level 29 at Ygerra fight. However the new run does not spend 16 (!) skill points gained from the Zeppling section, and while one may wonder whether the runner forgot about it, I also question if it was worth spending the time to click for those. Would the strength really be necessary? Maybe a little?
The current run ends up as:
76 vitality
16 spirit
89 strength
5 dexterity
2 intelligence
480-538 weapon strength, 31-51 magic

The new run ends up with:
85 vitality
9 spirit (mainly due to item bonuses)
34 strength
2 dexterity
2 intelligence
1054-1171 weapon strength, 6-11 magic

The items bought and picked up, equipped and all are more favorable for the new run, more than doubling the power for much less strength. The runner definitely showed more planning and getting luckier with items.
I should also mention both runs opt for vtality first with the first 50 or so points spent on the character, and only then move to strength before putting it back on vitality.
The summoned creature occurs at the same time in both runs, with the third rift with Zandalor. Both creatures appear to be equal in strength and work just fine.

Boss battles overall are more aggressive compared to the current run on the site, but they do share some "hiding" in order to regenerate mana, health or wait for polymorph to time out, along with very few other curses. To show how more aggressive the new run is, the Ygerra memory battle (against Zandalor and Lucian) lasts just shy off of two minutes, and the old one is 4:16 minutes.
Several other sections of the game are also done faster. Champion Academy is a shining example, as the route taken in both runs differ. You need to collect 5 orbs, and both runs differ in which ones they collect. Current run also has a bad fall towards the 4th orb, losing time. The strategy changes as well: current run on the site fights pretty much anything it can, whereas the submitted one just runs through enemies. The disadvantage on the new run comes with the three-handle "challenge" where it gets cursed with freezing so much it is not funny. Other parts of the Academy also have freezing, but the runner does well to avoid some of them. Placing the orbs is purely quick and again just goes through enemies instead of taking them head on.
Overall, Champion Academy and the pre-battle for it are 3 minutes faster on the new run. Theofolous himself is beaten a lot faster as well.
There are other boss battles which are all beaten faster, and several sections are quicker as well, but not by a lot.

The second half of the game plagues both runs with underlevelled characters (though the new run handles enemies a lot quicker thanks to being a lot stronger in terms of weapons) against 40+ levelled enemies. The new run has problems with enemies causing polymorphs and stunning spells, rendering the runner unable to progress as quick as he'd like, and it looks bad. However the strategy works overall.

Biggest mistake exists in the section of closing the rifts with Zandalor (Ego Draconis section of the game). The first gate, like the current run, has enemies hitting Zandalor so the timer resets (one reset overall), but loses a second on the reset compared to the current run. The second rift has the new submission barely pull ahead on the last second thanks to (random, it seems) Deodatus taking longer to speak than the timer, so the timer hits 0, resets right as the Deodatus stops saying his stuff, but allows the runner to progress. This gives the new run ~12.5 seconds advantage when comparing the timer resets. However this advantage is then removed on the last rift where with ~15 seconds to go, Zandalor is hit and the timer resets at 9 seconds, causing the runner to lose 51 seconds. The current run on the site does not have this. Overall, there is a ~39.5 seconds loss.

On a small side note to the runner: is the Zepplin section an autoscroller? You got 10 seconds faster than the old run on this part, somehow.

In terms of timing, the new run is 2:03:37 (old is 2:17:53) making this a healthy 14:16 improvement.
Ego Draconis is 1:26:49 (old 1:28:57), and Flames of Vengeance is 36:45 (old 48:51). If you're verifying the run, the game does crash and attempts to "continue" are shown for a long time. Skip from 1:27:31.800 to 1:46:09.066 for a smooth experience.

I do feel Ego Draconis can go faster, and is the weaker of the two sections of this run. The rifts can save a whopping minute alone, and the runner did get stunned a fair bit in several sections compared to the current run on the site, but the boss battles are fantastic. I think I've seen a glitch going through an impassable area as well, which is a plus. Taking advantage of no health loss with falling height also does wonders in some sections, such as Dragon flying and transforming back to Dragon Knight.
Flames of Vengeance is superb. Less stunning can improve this by a healthy minute at the least, but doing so is questionable, but forgoing saving Behrlihn makes the biggest difference in this run, followed by points on Fatality and the additional weapon strength.

Overall this is a polished and well executed run, but not without its drawbacks. Runner clearly knows his stuff and did more research, but follows the same basic outline of a route done in the run currently on the site.

Accept.

The run took a week to get through (timing is fun, yo). The run itself is quite entertaining for me which helps out.

A/V is solid. I want XQ though :(

The route is essentially the same in both runs, with the required quests completed in order to progress. The only real difference between the two runs is in the second half of the game (Flames of Vengeance) where the new run does not free Behrlihn from his prison. This alone means Behrlihn isn't battled against at the very end (along with Ygerra), which drops the final fight's time from 8:35 to 1:09 minutes!!! Mind you, Ygerra also healed herself a fair bit during the fight as well, but that is unavoidable.

Movement through the game also differs, with the new run opting for side-rolling as much as possible, whereas the old run just jumps forwards. I can't comment a lot, but it looks smoother.
Chosen skills differ a fair bit between the two. The current run puts points in Fatality only at the very end against Ygerra and Behrlihn, whereas the new one puts points much more earlier. New skills shown are Battle Rage and health regen. Both runs use Life Leech, Dual-Wielding Expertise, Regenerate and Healing. However the new run opts for Healing over Regenerate.
Fatality plays a big role, since you can kill an enemy with some of his HP left in one shot. Example: you can kill a boss with 20% HP left using this skill. As the new run gets it earlier, it also opts to kill bosses earlier using this skill. You can also tell it gets used thanks to the spam of "you cannot perform Fatality on this enemy yet". The new run ends up with 10 points on this skill, totalling 37% of the hitpoints.

In terms of the character itself, differences are also noticeable: both runs end up as Level 29 at Ygerra fight. However the new run does not spend 16 (!) skill points gained from the Zeppling section, and while one may wonder whether the runner forgot about it, I also question if it was worth spending the time to click for those. Would the strength really be necessary? Maybe a little?
The current run ends up as:
76 vitality
16 spirit
89 strength
5 dexterity
2 intelligence
480-538 weapon strength, 31-51 magic

The new run ends up with:
85 vitality
9 spirit (mainly due to item bonuses)
34 strength
2 dexterity
2 intelligence
1054-1171 weapon strength, 6-11 magic

The items bought and picked up, equipped and all are more favorable for the new run, more than doubling the power for much less strength. The runner definitely showed more planning and getting luckier with items.
I should also mention both runs opt for vtality first with the first 50 or so points spent on the character, and only then move to strength before putting it back on vitality.
The summoned creature occurs at the same time in both runs, with the third rift with Zandalor. Both creatures appear to be equal in strength and work just fine.

Boss battles overall are more aggressive compared to the current run on the site, but they do share some "hiding" in order to regenerate mana, health or wait for polymorph to time out, along with very few other curses. To show how more aggressive the new run is, the Ygerra memory battle (against Zandalor and Lucian) lasts just shy off of two minutes, and the old one is 4:16 minutes.
Several other sections of the game are also done faster. Champion Academy is a shining example, as the route taken in both runs differ. You need to collect 5 orbs, and both runs differ in which ones they collect. Current run also has a bad fall towards the 4th orb, losing time. The strategy changes as well: current run on the site fights pretty much anything it can, whereas the submitted one just runs through enemies. The disadvantage on the new run comes with the three-handle "challenge" where it gets cursed with freezing so much it is not funny. Other parts of the Academy also have freezing, but the runner does well to avoid some of them. Placing the orbs is purely quick and again just goes through enemies instead of taking them head on.
Overall, Champion Academy and the pre-battle for it are 3 minutes faster on the new run. Theofolous himself is beaten a lot faster as well.
There are other boss battles which are all beaten faster, and several sections are quicker as well, but not by a lot.

The second half of the game plagues both runs with underlevelled characters (though the new run handles enemies a lot quicker thanks to being a lot stronger in terms of weapons) against 40+ levelled enemies. The new run has problems with enemies causing polymorphs and stunning spells, rendering the runner unable to progress as quick as he'd like, and it looks bad. However the strategy works overall.

Biggest mistake exists in the section of closing the rifts with Zandalor (Ego Draconis section of the game). The first gate, like the current run, has enemies hitting Zandalor so the timer resets (one reset overall), but loses a second on the reset compared to the current run. The second rift has the new submission barely pull ahead on the last second thanks to (random, it seems) Deodatus taking longer to speak than the timer, so the timer hits 0, resets right as the Deodatus stops saying his stuff, but allows the runner to progress. This gives the new run ~12.5 seconds advantage when comparing the timer resets. However this advantage is then removed on the last rift where with ~15 seconds to go, Zandalor is hit and the timer resets at 9 seconds, causing the runner to lose 51 seconds. The current run on the site does not have this. Overall, there is a ~39.5 seconds loss.

On a small side note to the runner: is the Zepplin section an autoscroller? You got 10 seconds faster than the old run on this part, somehow.

In terms of timing, the new run is 2:03:37 (old is 2:17:53) making this a healthy 14:16 improvement.
Ego Draconis is 1:26:49 (old 1:28:57), and Flames of Vengeance is 36:45 (old 48:51). If you're verifying the run, the game does crash and attempts to "continue" are shown for a long time. Skip from 1:27:31.800 to 1:46:09.066 for a smooth experience.

I do feel Ego Draconis can go faster, and is the weaker of the two sections of this run. The rifts can save a whopping minute alone, and the runner did get stunned a fair bit in several sections compared to the current run on the site, but the boss battles are fantastic. I think I've seen a glitch going through an impassable area as well, which is a plus. Taking advantage of no health loss with falling height also does wonders in some sections, such as Dragon flying and transforming back to Dragon Knight.
Flames of Vengeance is superb. Less stunning can improve this by a healthy minute at the least, but doing so is questionable, but forgoing saving Behrlihn makes the biggest difference in this run, followed by points on Fatality and the additional weapon strength.

Overall this is a polished and well executed run, but not without its drawbacks. Runner clearly knows his stuff and did more research, but follows the same basic outline of a route done in the run currently on the site.

Accept.

SDAVerification

2017-08-22 12:57:52 pm

Decision posted.

porit

Edit history:

porit: 2017-12-14 12:11:56 am

2017-12-13 05:09:26 am

Long but pretty good run. I found some tips that I will use in my own run księgowa Jelenia Góra.

ginon

Edit history:

ginon: 2018-01-09 12:25:26 am

2018-01-08 01:59:26 am

One on my favourite RPGs. I will try today to beat my PB Księgowa Jelenia Góra Smiley

Kalmes

2018-01-13 01:03:14 pm

I was just seeing this post,
thanks a lot for your feedback @IsraeliRD.
The reason why I didnt jump from target to target in the first part of the game is, because I simple dont know how he did it.
He somehow cancels the animation before he hits the enemy and even does the same thing with his Jump Attack right before the portl fight in aleroth.
If anyone knows how its done please tell me. thumbsup