Pillars of Eternity Support Blog

It's just that changing the Cipher focus balance this late in the game cycle shifts playstyles quite a bit, especially for low-level Ciphers who essentially are going to be crappier Rogues for a few early levels until they can get some level of useful starting Focus. (I haven't experimented with Focus generation yet, but I do wonder if that renders some already-made builds less favorable than they used to be, while boosting other builds). I'm always a little loathe about changes like this in single player games--it's not like this is a multiplayer game where balance is superbly dicey because players are collaborating with or fighting/competing with other players.

So on my cipher playthrough my focus is halved but I seem to miss out on the endurance / level.

 

That's bad--none of the additional staying power with less of the offensive power...

• There's a new option to reset newly recruited companions to level 1 (without losing the experience). This will allow you to level up companions to your liking.

 

So how will this work in current games. If i already recruited them and than install the patch, can i than use this feature one time on them?

 

Best feature I wished it was present on launch. I hated it so much that I had to look so deep into the companions, it made really feel the need to rush for them and thus spend much more time researching on websites and ingame instead of enjoying the world created. This is especially true for the zones before Caed Nua.

Hello! Any chance of doing anything with Bloody Slaughter to make it worthwhile? Between my self made player rogue and the party members wizard and druid, I have my 3 killers in party with it because it sounded so cooool, but watching the combat log like a hawk, I see it trigger maybe once every 3 fights or so.

 

Barring that, any chance to have a de-trainer somewhere to fully respec any party member to get rid of super unfun junk like Bloody Slaughter?

Also, I hope you reconsider the area change on cypher soul shock, that's a pretty huge difference!!

 

Also also, bug report: in the quest with nyfre, it's possible to kill her, complete the quest for the 1000$, then tell the dude he's evil, kill him too, and loot his body for another 1000$.

So how will this work in current games. If i already recruited them and than install the patch, can i than use this feature one time on them? [...]

 

I'm interested in this as well! Hope it is possible.

 

Also I think the cipher focus nerf is a bit harsh. Maybe it could be a bit less lowered. If you've optimized your cipher build for the fact that he will start with 1/2 of his focus, the build will probably suck when suddenly starting only with 1/4 focus. I guess this nerf will force me to begin a new savegame.

So I signed in with steam's beta program because I wanted to test that patch.

 

Can anyone tell me, how I reset companions to level 1 when meeting up? I desperately looked for some button in the character window, but didn't find one.

So I signed in with steam's beta program because I wanted to test that patch.

 

Can anyone tell me, how I reset companions to level 1 when meeting up? I desperately looked for some button in the character window, but didn't find one.

It's in the Options menu, under the Game tab I believe.

 

So I signed in with steam's beta program because I wanted to test that patch.

 

Can anyone tell me, how I reset companions to level 1 when meeting up? I desperately looked for some button in the character window, but didn't find one.

It's in the Options menu, under the Game tab I believe.

 

 

Ah, that's probably the last place I would have looked for it.

Lightning strike doesn't do 25% more damage (than before)  0.1 * 1.25 = 0.125 (great buff ) 

 

It now does 25% lash damage  (previously it did 10% )... Still not a huge improvement (IMHO) but an actually significant buff to at least get people to try it again (and probably find it wanting again).. 

 

//////////////

Also if marked prey is working as intended - you might want to change its description to match .. (not 20 flat damage per swing - gogogo fast dual dagger but +40% lash ) .. 

For those of you worried about Cipher focus, there's a few things that the patch notes don't mention:

- Draining whip now increases focus generation by 33% instead of giving +2 focus per hit (according to the ingame description. Haven't checked). That means no more blunderbuss-cheese, but at the same time it got nice synergy with Biting Whip (more damage = more focus).

- Greater Focus now increases your "base" focus by 10! Tooltip still only says it increases Max Focus and I assume it still does that, too (haven't checked the max).

 

It's still less focus overall and adds another talent that you might "need", but Ciphers will still be very powerful. Especially since their strongest abilites haven't been touched at all.

"Fixed a number of issues with the Winds of Steel quest. This should be a retroactive fix if the quest was already started before working on the second quest with the Dozens or Doemenels, or if the quest was acquired or completed in conjunction with Bronze Beneath the Lake or Changing of the Guard."

 

 

Am I missing something here? In my game it is *impossible* to acquire or complete any of the 2nd faction quests "in conjunction with one another". Once one is accepted, the other factions will not work with you further. Is this a bug, or intended?

Also, kudos on the balancing. I know there's bellyaching every time something is nerfed, so I figured I'd provide a bit of opinion from the other side - the game is much more fun for me when things are balanced. I may actually use ciphers now since it won't feel like cheating. Thanks for that.

Would be nice if identical items would stack in shop/stash. When trying to find somehting in a shop where I've sold dozens of identical armors/weapons it's not much fun.

I may be dumb but this kinda confused me:  " Please Note: Save games in 1.05 are not compatible with 1.04 or earlier versions. The game will automatically back up your save games in a special folder in the save game directory after converting the saves to the new format." 

 

This does not mean that I have to start a new game, does it ?

 

From what i understand it just means that the file format of save game files will be changed, but automatically updated.

 

Just for confirmation please.

 

Thank you

I may be dumb but this kinda confused me:  " Please Note: Save games in 1.05 are not compatible with 1.04 or earlier versions. The game will automatically back up your save games in a special folder in the save game directory after converting the saves to the new format." 

 

This does not mean that I have to start a new game, does it ?

 

From what i understand it just means that the file format of save game files will be changed, but automatically updated.

 

Just for confirmation please.

 

Thank you

You can load a 1.04 save to 1.05 beta and keep playing with the new changes. You'll get the UI improvements, the class balances, etc. Some changes aren't retroactive, like the PER <=> INT switch from the Grieving Mother, the Personal Records lost when swapping characters, or the ability to respec companions when you first get them. In fact, there is a game breaking bug going on right now that will prevent you from properly recruiting any 1.04 companion in a 1.05 beta save due to Character Sheets getting bugged. This might get fixed in the final 1.05 release.

 

It's up to you to apply the patch or not. Personally, I'm going to wait to make sure everything is in order then start a new fresh game.

Wizard and Cipher's base endurance has been raised from 30 to 36, and per level from 10 to 12.

 

- Cipher is already OP. Doesn't need this buff.

 

Sanguine Plate's Retaliate mod has been replaced with Spell Holding: Frenzy.

 

- Now worthless. Please reconsider this change, you've already nerfed Retaliation!

 

Otherwise it seems pretty cool.

Yeh, I would like to have a reason for wearing the Sanguine plate besides its looks. I mean—I really want my main to wear it because of the looks, but now picking the Sanguine plate over the funky adra plate would be shooting myself in the foot.

"Fixed a number of issues with the Winds of Steel quest. This should be a retroactive fix if the quest was already started before working on the second quest with the Dozens or Doemenels, or if the quest was acquired or completed in conjunction with Bronze Beneath the Lake or Changing of the Guard."

 

 

Am I missing something here? In my game it is *impossible* to acquire or complete any of the 2nd faction quests "in conjunction with one another". Once one is accepted, the other factions will not work with you further. Is this a bug, or intended?

The way you experienced it is the way it is intended; only 1 2nd faction quest should be able to be accepted and completed. However, there was a very specific way of progressing through the quests that allowed players to accept 2 of the 2nd faction quests, which also made it impossible to complete any of them. This issue should now be resolved.

Which changes are not retroactive to saved games?

Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar switched over to foe only.

 

I can't tell if this (and other similar changes) are nerfs or buffs. On the one hand, I can see it being easier to use, but on the other my absolute favorite thing to do was drop this on a batch of confused enemies and watch them die, which is no longer possible with foe-only targetting.

 

EDIT: also, increasingly fewer and fewer wizard spells are general AoE spells, which in my mind greatly diminishes some of the tactical flexibility (and challenge) of using them. if these changes were intended to be buffs, they should have been made more directly powerful rather than changing how they work :-/

Also,

 

Trial of Iron: Loading a game will now force a save to happen to prevent save scumming.

 

how does this prevent save scumming? Isn't the game you're loading already saved, so to speak?

 

 

So I signed in with steam's beta program because I wanted to test that patch.

 

Can anyone tell me, how I reset companions to level 1 when meeting up? I desperately looked for some button in the character window, but didn't find one.

It's in the Options menu, under the Game tab I believe.

 

 

Ah, that's probably the last place I would have looked for it.

 

 

We are going to put together a short video showing off the new features and how to access them. This will go out when we send out our next backer update.

Which changes are not retroactive to saved games?

 

There are too many fixes for me to list them all. If you have a question about a specific one, please ask.

 

Most systems changes are retroactive. For example, if we changed a spell it will appear changed when you use it next. Most completed quests (or quests that are already in a broken state) will not be fixed automatically and it requires us to make a retroactive fix. Depending on the problem we may or may not be able to make that retroactive fix available.

 

So how will this work in current games. If i already recruited them and than install the patch, can i than use this feature one time on them? [...]

 

I'm interested in this as well! Hope it is possible.

 

Also I think the cipher focus nerf is a bit harsh. Maybe it could be a bit less lowered. If you've optimized your cipher build for the fact that he will start with 1/2 of his focus, the build will probably suck when suddenly starting only with 1/4 focus. I guess this nerf will force me to begin a new savegame.

 

 

Currently, It will only work for newly recruited companions.