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These are the patch notes for patch 1.03. This patch is now available on Steam, and will be available on GOG soon. Note: We have hotfixed the problem with adventurer hall-created companions not being able to unlock doors or chests. Second Note: We have also fixed an issue where people were unable to open certain doors due to the Fog of War. "Big Ticket" Items Bears and Cats can now be equipped with hats. This is most likely not a joke... but might be a joke. Double-clicking to equip items was causing passive abilities to get removed from the character. This has been fixed and we were able to retroactively fix the problem for people that have already run into the issue. If you open your saved game in the latest patch, your characters will be repaired. Fixed a problem where attributes on characters could permanently increase by equipping certain items. This will also retroactively fix the problem in saved games that have characters with this issue. The crash in Raedric's Hold has been fixed. Fixed the looping audio sounds that can occur if you play with minimized tooltips. Previously Wizard summoned items could persist after the spell's duration. This has been fixed and it will also retroactively fix the problem in saved games that have characters with this issue. The items Drinking Horn of Moderation and Talisman of the Unconquerable were causing Ciphers to permanently lower their amount of focus gain. We've included a fix to retroactively resolve the issue on Ciphers but the effect is still on the items. Unfortunately the fix will not fix the broken effect on those items, so you'll need to keep those items unequipped until the next patch. If you do equip them, perform a Save/Load to fix your Cipher. Features Added graphics setting to toggle antialiasing levels. This can improve performance on lower end machines when disabled. Added pro tips to the Glossary. Many new icons for items. Added new voice set reactivity for lockpick, poison, enemy spotted in stealth, spell failure, death, immobilized, and completed task. Added indicators on the loot screen when looting crafting and quest items. Party can now use lockpicks that are in the Stash. You can now cast AoEs on party member portraits and the spell will be targeted at the companion's location. Balance Monk unarmed attack buffed by 1 point at the top end. Arbalest damage has been lowered. Fast melee weapons do slightly more damage. Slight bump to sabre damage. Tuned down Mind Blades. Tuned ranges of many Wizard spells to be higher. Slicken spell is now a single hit AoE. Chill Fog is now a friend or foe spell. Curse of Blackened Sight is now foe only. Changed reload speed multiplier from 2 to 1.2 for Sure-Handed Ila. Fixed the price on Seal of Faith. Adjusted price on figurines. Adjusted price on rings. Tuned up the Goldrot Chew. Reduced the penalties for Bonded Grief. Tuned up Bulwark of the Elements. Modified attributes of companions and Itumaak. Raised the bonus for having fewer than six party members from 5% per character under the limit to 10% per character under the limit. Added cooldown to NPC Rogue's Escape ability usage so they won't use it back to back. Rebalanced fight difficulty and spell selection for the Old Watcher. Lowered the scale of the Defiance Bay reputation by 15%. Beloved Spirits adds 0.4 Endurance to Ancient Memory instead of 2. Changed duration of the Flagellant's Path defense penalty. Adjustments to the Mantle of the Dying Boar. Reduced the price of the Brighthollow Hearth and Courtyard Pool. Heart of Fury will now apply to all damage types. Tuned damage on Brilliant Radiance down. Systems Fixed issue with Wizard's summoned magical items getting stuck after save and load. Wizards will be restored to a proper state after loading a game. Changed one of the fatigue status effects to not end with combat. Fixed save game issues with spells and abilities that place down traps. Fixed issue to prevent Ciphers from casting abilities without the required Focus. Restored modal flag for Reckless Assault. Set Transcendent Suffering to not be combat only. Fixed duration issue with Plague of Insects. Fixed companion audio triggers for some status effects. Hunting Bows had the wrong speed descriptor. They are now listed as Fast. Character Hit Autopause option should be working as intended. You can now close the Grimoire and Chant UI with a hotkey. Fixed issue with summoning magic items while unarmed. Fixed delay issue on Knockdown. Fixed a few issues with Dominate and Charm spells. Fixed a bad item mod on the Ring of Protection. Fixed issue with the Terrible weapon mod. Changed bad data in ranger summons. Made Takedown to be consistent with Knockdown. Fixed multiplier on Blooded. Summoned weapons will be removed when Spiritshifting. Fixed issue with bouncing reflected melee attacks. Party members will no longer switch to different weapons after being Charmed or Dominated. Ancient Memory is now Ally only. A summoned weapon will not unequip the grimoire. Fixed Spellstriking mod. Fixed trigger count issue with the Prone reduction mod. DOT spells should clean up properly when combat ends. Fixed Deflection +10 mod. All Exhortations are now combat only. Only play weapon ineffective VO if the attack is hostile. Aggrandizing Radiance will now last until combat ends. Holy Radiance is now combat only. Carnage now works better. Quests Fixed issues with factions and super friend quests with Lady Webb's dialogue. Adjusted trigger in front of the Salty Mast to fix a possible way to skip a required cutscene. Fixed issue with the Winds of Steel quest line. Fixed a trigger outside the First Fires Keep that could have been avoided. Many fixes to music, audio, and VFX to a scene near the end of the game. The prybar should now display the correct image in the Raedric's Hold moat scripted interaction. Changed faction on the Hall of Warrior's containers. Fixed scripted music for the forge knight combats in the keep. Visual effects in the introduction cutscene should now be triggered properly. Fixed conversation of the guards in Raedric's Hold to not repeat. Added cape and armor to the loot for the Fampyr boss. Fix to Osrya's starting timer not being attached to the trigger in the area. UI Fixed sound issue when collapsing the tutorial UI. Fixed issue with double clicking items to equip. This is a retroactive fix and will restore characters with proper stats. Fixed issue where camping supplies were disappearing when added to Stash. Cage Cursor setting should not turn off after loading a scene or cutscene and is now on by default. Fixed cropping on a few portraits. Fixed issue with highlighting dead bodies and containers in the fog of war. Fixed item stacking issue that was stacking items inappropriately. Reduced the intensity of the explored fog of war on the area map, and fixed an issue where the shadow layer was causing the area map to be darker than it should be. Small UI updates to the journal screen. Reworked the enchanting UI to work better with multiple lines. Fixed UI sorting issue in store. Fixed UI sorting in crafting menu. Fixes to Capitular glyphs in end game slides. Fixed issue with stronghold alert widgets not hiding properly. Fixed an issue with weapon mods were incorrectly being displayed in some cases. Drag select should work properly when starting the drag over an enemy. Fixed a few issues with drag select and formation rotation causing issues when the mouse goes over UI elements. Fixed some control issues with holding down keys. Shot on the Run recovery value should be now displayed correctly. Fixed issues to how the HUD fades out during conversations. When the party receives or loses items, those log messages now go to both logs. Cleaned up the character sheet formatting and made more items clickable. Store item names can now take up two lines. Spells now show DT bypass in the description. Consumables now show per-Rest and per-Encounter usage limitations. Other Fixes Fixed stats issue with saving and loading on the same map where a companion is found. This is a retroactive fix and will restore companions and characters to the proper state. Fixed issues with save games in Raedric's Hold, causing the game to not function correctly or freeze. Ranger Animal Companions should not disappear anymore and broken animals will be restored after loading and saving the game. Fixed possible issues with disappearing items and weapons. Minor fixes to a few select voice over lines. Fixed size issues with equipped capes on Godlike characters. Changed Explorer achievement to check for 152 maps rather than 160. Fixed many issues where combat would not end properly. Updated credits with more backer names. Updated paperdoll level up lighting. Scripted music should now be restored properly after loading a game. Updated Temple of Eothas render. Fixed some rendering issues with Fog of War on some areas. Fixed sounds on movie that plays near end of game. Reduced antelope feet sliding. Fixed issue with weapon caching causing issues when weapons are swapped. Interstitial music no longer loops. Fixed issue where party members could take damage in cutscenes. Fixed voice cues during looting for full inventory. Fixed transparency on ghost characters. Fixed issues with cutscene pathfinding if the game's process is halted. Fixed issue with Expert mode settings getting saved improperly. Fixed issue where characters were not properly stopping at the last waypoint of their path. Adjusted Skuldr scream vocals. We now handle some edge cases in resolution management on some hardware configurations. Fixed issue with the party member Knockout achievement not reporting the correct numbers.

A number of users have reported they are seeing black screens when playing the game, usually when switching resolutions, or toggling between windowed mode and full screen. We've also had reports of similar behavior when trying to use external displays. We've looked into this issue extensively on our end, and we've found a reproducible case within the engine and have sent it off to the folks at Unity to investigate further. In the meantime as a workaround, you can generally press Command-F to get yourself into a state where you can save your game, quit, and restart. Pressing Command-F toggles between windowed mode and fullscreen (and back if you press it again). Pending fix in version: Unknown

Character building for games isn’t easy, and it requires a lot of effort, especially when it comes to companions. I’ve had the good fortune to work on a variety of titles with strong support characters over the years, and I enjoy writing them a great deal. I still can’t believe I get paid to do this (don’t cut me off, Feargus). There are a few guidelines I try to follow when designing companions (some of these are dependent on the engine and franchise). - Combat/Challenge-viable. Any companion that can’t hold their weight and help support the home team in some fashion isn’t going to last long in the hearts of players (well, maybe a very forgiving few). This is something I learned way back in Fallout 2 when it became clear that Cassidy was far preferred over Myron, for example (and not just because Myron was an ****, which factors into another point below). It’s also a lesson I picked up while playing Final Fantasy III – every character needs to contribute to the mechanics and challenge mechanics in some fashion (whether combat or stealth or whatever the game’s challenge is). - Companions should be optional. Whenever possible, the player should never be forced to take them or in the case of true psychopaths, even let them live. The golden rule is the companion should be a support character or a walking/breathing slab of target practice if the players don’t like or want anything to do with the companion. - Next, assuming the players like the companion, the companion should serve as a sounding board for the theme of the game. It’s not mandatory, but there’s no better way to reinforce the narrative than someone who is walking beside the player for 70-80% of the game. This worked well with Kreia in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, it was the spine of most of the companions in Planescape: Torment, and it worked well with Kaelyn the Dove in NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer. - The companion needs to ego-stroke the player in a variety of ways. Sometimes this can be romance, sometimes this can be simply reactivity (either brief barks or conversations about the player’s actions), or any of a variety of methods. Ultimately, however, any companion that simply sits around bitching, complaining, and haranguing the player isn’t someone you want to drag into the nearest dungeon to help clear it out… you may simply want to throw them in the dungeon and lock the door. - A visual and vocal/audio hook. This may be the result of many, many years of comic books, but whenever possible, I try to suggest a variety of “visual ego signatures” that can be integrated into the character design, and audio hooks as well. For example, when doing the Fallout New Vegas: DLC, Dead Money, the visual signatures were Dog/God’s bear trap that was still clamped on his arm (along with his name carved in his chest so it could be seen in reverse in a mirror), Dean’s dapper lounge singer suit to contrast with his ghoulish appearance, and even something as simple as Christine’s throat scar (which we had to position carefully so the bomb collar wouldn’t obscure it). All of these things serve to tag the character and helps make them stand out. Each had their own vocal hooks as well (Dog/God’s voice would change based on his personality, Dean had the drippy smooth singer voice, and Christine’s vocal hook was she didn’t speak at all). - Speaking of Kaelyn, companions are also a great means of foreshadowing as well. Kaelyn’s relationship with her deity and his role in the Forgotten Realms ended up being a nice way to subtly build on the end game without directly hammering the player over the head with exposition. - Reactivity, not just to player’s actions but to the environment and events taking place. The Mask of the Betrayer’s barks for when companions would enter certain areas, for example, did a great job of showcasing their personality and also a bit of lore/rumors about the location you were visiting. If we’re able to do the same with game mechanics and combat, that’s an ever better bonus (“aim for the eyes!” “Knock him down again!” “Good one!” “Did Dogmeat just knock down that super mutant?!” “I’m doing the best I can with this crappy knife you gave me!”) So in terms of companions for Project: Eternity, the process works like so: - Establish the game mechanics for the title, and when possible, link that into the lore and narrative while you’re doing it. What’s the central system mechanic of the game? (For example, in Mask of the Betrayer, the soul-eating mechanic and basic combat were the two principle systems the player was interacting with.) - Design characters that support that game mechanic, and if it’s been properly integrated with the lore and narrative, make sure they discuss that angle as well, either though exchanges or reactions to it taking place in the environment. - Next up, figure out exactly where that character shines in terms of the game mechanics – why would a player bring this companion along? Are they a tank, a healer, or perfect for sniping enemies from a mile away? This shouldn’t overlap with another companion’s specialty if you can help it. - Build a barebones background. Were they once a scout, an assassin, a merchant, a Sith Lord, a smuggler, a bartender, etc.? What led them to that… and what led them to where they are today in the world? I say barebones, because I prefer to leave wiggle room for exploration and fleshing out the background while writing the character – the most likely avenue a player has to discover a CNPC’s history is through talking to them, so I let the CNPC do most of the work and try to focus on giving the details there and then. - Gather whatever reference art you can that you feel capture’s the hook of the character (for example, in Dead Money, Dog/God’s reference art often revolved around Mr. Hyde from Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentleman comic) and sit down and discuss the “whys” of each piece with the concept artist. I am fortunate to work with Brian Menze and he’s done a lot of the companions for Obsidian and Black Isle over the years, and seeing what he takes from the brief character descriptions and runs with them is really nice to behold (for example, Darth Nihilus). The important thing about Brian’s approach is he takes a lot of time to delve into the visuals of each franchise he works with and makes sure he’s capturing the art direction as well – and it really served us well while he was designing Kreia, Atton, and the other heroes/villains of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. - Build a tone. This starts as soon as you start writing – and sometimes, the tone surprises me once I actually start writing. The cadence of how the character talks, their slang, the subjects that interest them – I start a conversation with the character and try to imagine what I’d like to ask them about as players… and often, I try to steer the conversation into game mechanic help, gifts, new perks and skills to learn from the companion (which we used a lot in Torment, KOTOR2, and Dead Money, for example). The player should feel that they are gaining something of value from the interaction, even if the interaction isn’t mandatory – exploring a character’s personality should be as much fun as exploring a dungeon. - Keep the theme in mind. As mentioned before, I try to keep the game’s theme in mind while writing (the nature of the Force in K2, the suffering of the spirit in Torment, the idea of “letting go”/obsession/greed in Dead Money) and try to find ways to weave that into the character’s conversation and their history. You don’t want to hammer it home too much, but you want to include enough hooks so when the player thinks back on the conversation, it’ll start to sink in and all click into place once the game enters its final stages. That’s a bit about characterization – in future blogs, I’d go over a bit about constructing game stories and narratives, discuss some of the companion mechanics we’ve used over the years (influence, reputation, etc.), and anything else you guys would like to read. Thanks for reading!

Oh. Hello there. I wanted to put some ideas into words to help express what it means to build a world at Obsidian. It takes a lot of time and effort from a boatload (dirigible-load) of people, but there are some guiding principles that keep us focused on building worlds we love that we hope players will love, too. No matter what the flavor of the setting may be -- fantasy, sci-fi, modern day espionage... a town in Colorado -- worlds are places we want to explore filled with characters we feel passionate about. Curiosity makes us want to explore. An interest in the unknown. Fascination and wonder at what we'll see if we go left instead of right. Visuals are part of it, but it's about the atmosphere and the feeling we get from stepping into a place we've never been part of before. When we see the way the world and the folks in it work, what drives it and them, no matter how mundane or fantastic, we believe in it. To feel for characters at all, we need to make a connection with them. To make a connection with them, we need to believe that if we were put in their shoes, maybe we'd follow the same path they're on. When we talk about mature themes, we're not describing arterial spray. We're talking about character motivations that we sympathize with in the setting. When we get to our nemeses after hunting them down for 50 hours and they say, "Man, do you see what I have to deal with?" we nod and say, "Yeah, I guess I do..." even as we're reluctantly beating their faces in with a morningstar. But it's not a one-way street. Those characters need to be with you. They need to pay attention to who you choose to be and how you choose to conduct yourself. It's why we love writing conversations as dialogues, exchanges with give and take. If we've built a world you believe in, your choices won't feel like random button clicks. They'll be decisions that make you think, maybe trouble you, possibly annoy you from time to time. And when your companions, friends, enemies, lovers, haters, et al. react with jeers, whooping, or the RPG equivalent of a sustained Citizen Kane clap, you won't feel the invisible hand of the market designer at work. You'll feel like you're at home in the world we, and your choices, have shaped. When you get down to it, we want to make places and lives you want to be a part of as much as we do. It seems a lot simpler than it is when it's written down like that, but through all of the complications and doubts, knowing what we're shooting for helps us move foward day after day and year after year. Hopefully you'll want to be part of where we're going next. It should be a hoot.