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Perhaps ... after David Byrne ... the 2nd best dance moves of all time? I remember the song being on the radio a lot. He had a string of radio-popular hits in the 70's and early 80's, I think. Back then I couldn't tell you his name but I sure did hear his songs. This is the one I really remember. It was played tons on "soft rock/easy listening" stations into the early 80's. When I was in a sappy pre-teen mood, it was perfect. More Than I Can Say was in the same vein and possibly a bit more popular. I think I heard both 100's of times. lol.

This is what annoys me the most. I tested a bit of dual wield / empty single wield as a melee ranger. - Benefit of dual wield: you can spam faster attacks by alternating between both buttons. Works with crit builds. - Disadvantage of dual wield. No parry, and attack combo easier loses benefits. So you rely on dodge and Shadowing Beyond. For single wield there is no benefit if using an empty offhand. They dropped the ball on this part. You might as well use a shield. IIRC Deadfire and POE1 gave you higher crit change if off-hand was empty.

Can we get more fish in other water areas of the game? Like in the prolog!

The conversation drops after initial statement by Ambassador Hylgard. Changing to any of the three different Sapadal decision has no affect on the bug. Both regular leaders of Thirdborn and Fior are there. I believe the bug comes from Kostya. I Saved Solace Keep, but I did so in "stealth" and thus never fought/killed him. During the Siege of Paradis quest Warden Kostya appears instead of Warden Mihala. Hylgard actually refers to Mihala with Kostya standing right next to him.

FYI, for anyone else experiencing this issue. I was able to resolve it by updating to the latest AMD Adrenaline drivers. https://www.amd.com/en/support/downloads/drivers.html/processors/ryzen/ryzen-7000-series/amd-ryzen-9-7940hs.html I installed the 25.2.1 drivers, but it's possible the 24.12.1 drivers would have done the job. This may not help everyone, but it seems like most on the thread are AMD at least.

Yes, as soon as you have an item in need of it, you learn the recipe to upgrade Adra. If you have a Fine +3 item, you learn how to combine 3 Adra into 1 Awakened Adra. And then at Exceptional +3 you learn how to make Corrupted Adra and then finally Adra Bán. Note that this also seems to be exempt from any Scavenger mechanics. The upgrade always costs 3, with or without Scavenger.

You can craft higher tier Adra?????

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/24/nx-s1-5305269/tesla-state-department-elon-musk-trump "But NPR has obtained a State Department document detailing that Biden's State Department planned to spend just $483,000 in the 2025 fiscal year on buying electric vehicles and $3 million for supporting equipment, like charging stations. It represented less than 1% of the hundreds of millions of dollars likely destined for Tesla vehicles after the Trump administration quietly revised a State Department procurement document."

^Its mostly in a cluster of mennonites and sky wizard is asleep at the wheel.

Thank you everyone for putting in the work to "decipher" this system! I don't think I'd have ever figured out myself. I am an older cRPG player and for me the idea that the power of my mage's spell depends on the quality of any of her equipment is just weird. They could have made it at least dependent on mage items, like grimoires, that would make a bit more sense.

I do Path of the Damned (melee ranger/rogue) as original poster, and I can verify that enemies hit HARD. Dodging or blocking is needed to master. In the beginning, unless you are using a shield to block or is excellent at dodging, you need to use stealth, running away to reset or the environment (Magrans Fire, gunpowder barrels). Once you can upgrade your armour and weapons, do so. Bust basically, using Kai to taunt and get aggro is also NEEDED. Spatial awareness of enemies is key. Also, once you reach level 5, get the signature ability on the 2nd tier (Shadowing Beyond, Barbaric Roar or Grimoire Mastery) of your favourite class-tree.

I found that Showing Beyond with the first Godlike ability (Divine Thorn) is a pretty cool thing. The weapon you carry doesn't matter, so I can shoot at incoming attackers, turn invisible with Shadowing Beyond to avoid getting mauled - and if the attacker already suffered enough health loss while he was approaching me, I can deal the finishing blow from safety with the Thorn. Also Shadowing Beyond's cooldown is pretty short and the overall essence cost is low (especially at rank 3). I even retrained out of Arcane Veil because I didn't use it anymore once I got SB. What you cannot do well is power attacks straight from invisibility. The invisibility breaks as soon as you press the left mouse button unfortunately. But you can remove yourself from combat while you are invisible, so enemies are unaware of you - and then deal a power attack from range. All in all Shadowing Beyond improved my personal combat experience as an archer a lot.

Shadowing Beyond is great for a breather, but using the radial wheel with "prepare" option is also a good thing. I would recommend to hotbind the radial wheel for more strategic play. Also You want to use Kais taunts A LOT

Yeah, but as far as I know, we don't have that issue here in Germany right now. So panic-buying eggs is... really not necessary. Besides, it's not like you can store them for years like toilet paper.

It seems Mihala is supposed to being speaking after Hylgard finishes, but because she's not present the game just drops out of the conversation. I assume that the game makes Kostya the leader of Solace Keep if he is alive as he becomes hostile if you choose to save Solace.

If your not familiar with RPGs then you shouldn't play on Max Difficulty that's the major mistake you are making. Make sure your equipping the right gear and upgrading your gear Any Gear your not using break it down to get materials to upgrade your gear Pay attention to what quests you have if there is a skull next to the quest you are under levelled for it and pick up side quests and bounties and explore to level up and get better gear LOOT EVERYTHING

Greetings Envoys, A new patch is now live! This update brings important fixes and improvements, so be sure to update your game when it becomes available. We truly appreciate all of your reports and feedback—it’s invaluable in helping us identify and address issues to improve the game. Your support and patience mean a lot to us, and we want you to know that we’re listening. Our team is committed to making Avowed the best experience possible for everyone, and we will continue working hard to refine and enhance the game based on your input. We have a dedicated team focused on making Avowed better and better, and we’ll have more to announce soon. Stay tuned! If you run into any issues, please let us know at support.obsidian.net—your feedback helps us make the game even better! Thanks for playing, and as always, we appreciate your support! — The Avowed Team Crashes & Major Issues Adjusted character settings so that unkillable characters will now respawn if they mysteriously die, preventing blocked quest progression. Quests & Area Design Loot piles will no longer be placed in unexpected locations when created while the player is far away. Previously affected saved games will now have the loot pile back where the owning character died. Players who killed will no longer experience a dropped conversation when speaking with the leaders of the Living Lands during (Players with affected saves can now simply walk in and out of the meeting space to retrigger the conversation.) Bounty Masters in Dawnshore, Shatterscarp, and Galawain’s Tusks now correctly allow players to turn in bounties, even if they have acquired more trophy items than expected. Vemas now allows players to turn in Debt of Blood, even if they had already spoken to him upon returning. The player will no longer become stuck with no objectives active during An Untimely End. Fixed an issue where the player could become stuck in the environment near Dehengen's Cottage. Enemy loot will no longer disappear if the player killed Ygwulf and the assassins in the Cistern, saved their game, and then reloaded that save. Ambassador Hylgard can no longer die from drowning in The Strangleroot while following the player, which was preventing him from appearing at the embassy in Paradis. The player will no longer be blocked from finishing Ancient Soil if Fior mes Iverno becomes inaccessible. Systems & Gameplay Improvements Godless chests and sarcophagi now have currency in their loot lists. Upgrade materials (metal, wood, leather) are now more consistently available across stores in each region. Upgrade materials now properly refresh when store stock updates. Autosave frequency has been changed from 5 minutes to 10 minutes by default. (This can still be adjusted in player settings.) Autosave slots increased from 3 to 5. The ability Bleeding Cuts now applies Bleed Accumulation more reliably. Logging into Xbox Network on Steam no longer resets the player's selected language setting. Kai is now less likely to teleport inside a wall while using Leap of Daring. Companions now assist in combat more reliably. Visual & Art Fixes Militia Guard patrolling Claviger's Landing now has the correct neck texture. Adjusted health bar position for the enemy Putrid Skeleton Wizard. Fixed jittering of player hair and armor when afflicted by Poison Accumulation. Reduced opacity of a water fountain inside Ondra's Temple. User Interface (UI) & Controls Companion abilities bound to the Quick Slot menu no longer become undone after reloading a save. Added new settings for controller users to adjust gamepad look acceleration strength and ramp-up time. Corrected typos in the Encumbrance tutorial and on the Compiling Shaders screen (now correctly states “a few minutes” instead of “a few moments”). Miscellaneous Launching Avowed with DirectX 11 is now disabled, as the game does not support it. Some players have been using a DirectX 11 launch parameter as a workaround for various crashes, performance problems, or compatibility concerns. However, this can introduce additional problems that we cannot troubleshoot or resolve, including unexpected visual or performance issues. If you're encountering startup crashes, we recommend updating your drivers, verifying your game files, or reaching out to our support team at support.obsidian.net for assistance.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/us/politics/egg-prices-us-imports.html I think Ukraine has a lot of eggs, should have used that as leverage

@Bartimaeus I'm not sure if I'd qualify as a true hyper visualizer, but I was probably close. If someone says "mom" I think of a specific image of my mother sitting at kitchen table when she was in her 50's. It's pretty much a mental photograph, or sometimes, video. I could tell you what was on the table, what fruit was in the bowl, what color the floor or her dressing gown was. From there other "photographs" might pop up, leading me to other memories. Which is great and immersive with good memories. A downside however is it can be quite terrible re: ability to distance from negative memories. History/books were always my favorite/I'd remember better because they were like mini-stories. I can't visualize tech/math/programming/language manuals so the text in those literally starts to blur after a while, like my brain gives up since it can't visualize anything and just wants to blank the screen, heh.

I am not sure that Kravchuk didn't support NATO membership considering that he visited NATO headquarters, lead Ukraine's foreign policy to formalized Ukraine's relationship with NATO and helped to create framework agreement with NATO to support Central and Eastern European countries to join NATO. Kuchma started to propose special partnership with NATO after Russian Federal Council officially endorsed claim that Sevastopol is part of Russia. Which eventually lead him to declare that Ukraine wants to join NATO in 2002, although NATO countries seemed to though that such would be too risky because it would upset Russia, opinion that they still hold. Yushchenko then tried his best to get NATO and EU to open their doors for Ukraine, but his efforts were blocked by opposition parties that called referendum (polls said that about 50% oppose idea of joining NATO) about continuing pursuing joining in NATO, which lead to some leading Ukraine politician to state that Ukraine will not join NATO as long as public opposes it. W. Bush and Obama promised to support Ukraine's membership in NATO, but in 2008 NATO decided that it will not offer membership for Ukraine or Georgia yet. Bit later NATO told that Ukraine and Georgia would need to make reforms as the leaving present by W. Bush. Yanukovych campaigned with idea that Ukraine's relationship with NATO is sufficient and there is no urgency to join. Later he said that Ukraine's relationship with NATO is partnership and Ukraine can't live without that partnership. Then he removed "integration into Euro-Atlantic security and NATO membership" from Ukraine's national security strategy and law that didn't allow Ukraine to join any military bloc but allowed co-operation with them. But in same moth Ukraine approved plan to implement national annual program of cooperation with NATO, which lead Ukraine to continue joint exercises with NATO during Yanukovych presidency. Interim government and then president Poroshenko stated that they don't intent to make Ukraine a member of NATO. In August 2014 after reports that Russian military is operating in Ukraine, Prime minister Yatsenyuk announced he will ask Ukraine parliament to put Ukraine to path towards NATO membership and repeal non-block law. After that Ukraine has made joining NATO one of its priorities, which was answered by President of European Commission that it will take at least 20 years. But NATO did add Ukraine in 2018 in list of aspiring members. Zelenskyy signed Ukraine to NATO's enhanced opportunity partner interoperability program, which does not have effects on decisions about membership according to NATO's official statement. In 2021 when Russia started to bring troops and have military exercises on Ukraine's borders NATO members promised military support and started to grandstand about possibility give Ukraine MAP status in NATO. Then after half year of building troops Russia invaded Ukraine and NATO members didn't gave military support, but at least they gave equipment and money and sanctioned Russia somewhat. Popular support for NATO in Ukraine is about 80%, which is up from polls in 2014-2019, when support was about 50%, but Ukraine is probably not any closer to NATO membership than it has ever been. So in sort none of Ukraine's presidents have been against NATO, but Yushchenko was clearly NATO fan others seem to have seen it as way to protect Ukraine from Russia.

Here are my suggestions, more in line with their actual abilities: bear - 2AR, 10% chance to terrify, +1 enemy engaged boar - 4regen/3sec, 10% raw damage over time, +1 enemy engaged cat - 15% action speed, +7 accuracy stag - 20% AoE damage, + 7 all defenses wolf - +2 base damage, 10% chance to knockdown, + 25% stride

The bearded dancers was very woke for Trump.

Just a friendly reminder to stretch before engaging in any mental gymnastics. Don't want to pull a hammy.

lower the difficulty if you need easier opponents i definitely cheesed a few encounters on path of the damned, but largely play "normally." Early on you should strive very hard to get your armor and weapons upgraded to fine, it makes a huge difference. beyond that, you really do need to master dodging and aiming.

Alright, after some research, here's what I think. Bear - +2 AR and +1 Engagement is perfectly fine, fits well. - Rending Smash is a great fit thematically AND mechanically, as it adds some offensive power here, and as it applies a debuff - it is more beneficial with allies, focusing the bear form on tanking and basically disruption of enemies, leaving them more vulnerable for allies. It's not as strong as some other modal abilities, so that +1 Engagement besides the +2 AR is alright. Boar - +2 AR is quite fitting, though it would be nice to come up with something unique, I guess. - Interfering Strikes is a really good modal, which fits thematically - as boar can be more about just rushing enemies rather than dealing damage itself. That improves both Boar's survivability, as well as allies, if they are attacked - and it can be applied to multiple enemies. Simply put, it not only works for the Boar as a tanky form, it also makes it more of a disruptor. Since it's a little better than Rending Smash, I would say - it's alright for Boar to only have +2 AR (without +1 Engagement as well). Wolf - +5 Accuracy when attacking the same target as ally - an alright bonus, and fits the pack hunter theme. - Windmill Slash is not that great, as it costs a lot of recovery time, and it's hard to say when it's worth it - and that doesn't make for a defining role nor playstyle. But the modal from swords actually fits quite well here - let's call it Reckless Assault: +2 Penetration, -15 Deflection. This makes Wolf form theme/role that of a reckless attacker - you would use this modal when attacking some archers or spellcasters, where deflection malus is not that important, or when an enemy is focused on your ally, so that you don't put yourself in danger (which also combines well with the pack hunter theme); or simply when you don't care as much for your own health. That's great and thematic. Also makes this form great to shift to in case you ever struggle with penetration - remember what I said about "adapting to combat situation", that's it right here. Cat - Faster Recovery Speed (3s compared to other forms' 4s), same as vanilla; which is alright and thematic. - Bleeding Cut is not that great of a modal, except for bosses where you can stack it enough, and that's also only when you're dual wielding - and that-we-do. This makes it a situationally good modal - when you focus on single target / bosses, and that's exactly the role we're going for this form here. It may be a little strong, together with faster recovery rate, but tbh this form doesn't get anything defensive, and Wolf form gets more immediate bonuses to damage, while this form requires some time to stack the bleeding. So it's fine. Of course, you also don't have to sacrifice deflection, as Wolf does, but I like that they are different like that, with different costs and strengths. Stag - Carnage (20% damage dealt as Raw in 1.5m radius, damage increases by 2% per PL) (Barbarian's Carnage is 33% damage, increases by 3.3% per PL) - same as Community Patch, and thematically the same as vanilla. Quite fitting, considering the radius these antlers can smash around. - Defensive Stance: +20 Deflection against melee weapons, +50% recovery time with melee attacks. The theme is kind of the same - it's hard to get to attack the stag, due to these massive antlers in front. I've been considering if it is fine to give it the whole +20 Deflection, but it seems the math is alright, shouldn't be too much - especially since this also makes Carnage weaker, with slower rate of attack. Shark - Yeah, Tekehu needs some attention too - I think both Bleeding Cut and Reckless Assault fit here well. But it would be nice to make it more unique. - Exposing Strikes would prob fit even better. This is the only form where I would consider such a modal, as it is a little stronger than usual - as it would be active almost all the time. But it would make this form actually worth using for Tekehu, who's otherwise a full spellcaster - as it benefits the whole team, even if he's not as specialised for melee. And since he's kind of a support caster (at least half so, besides blasting), this more supportive modal fits quite nice. - And if we add anything else here, well we could add Bleeding Cut - and make this form a little more focused on single target. Considering that spell-wise Tekehu is more focused on aoe stuff, I love this idea - these modals together make a niche for him to actually use Spiritshift, when he would be worse than usual with his spells. But what about his immunity to dexterity afflictions? Remember me talking about a Fortitude/Reflex bonuses to all forms - what if we add Resistance (rather than Immunity or stat bonus) to these afflictions, that is fitting for each role? - Bear - Might - Boar - Constitution - Wolf - Dexterity - Cat - Dexterity - Stag - Constitution - Shark - Dexterity It would be especially nice for Bear - as it would help it maintain engagement. I like the idea of even base druids popping the right form just to get free of some Affliction. And it plays even better into Shifter's adaptability - as you can choose the form to shift to depending on Afflictions situated in combat (rather than on what features the form has). But it may be too much at this point, may be we should keep it to a small stat bonus - at least for the theme, as it makes sense.

n1ck_knack wrote (in the update you mention) : "the game calculates your character's tier is by simply picking the highest tier out of your first loadout, second loadout, and armor. Whatever item has the highest tier is what the game chooses when comparing you against the enemies." Example: you can have in hand a Common grimoire, but have a Fine weapon in your second loadout (not in hand), and you are therefore Fine tier. For players reading here : That said, upgrading your grimoire gives casting bonuses (reduced cost & cooldown). Upgrading weapons still boost their damage/stun. BUT you will not be hit by the tier buff/debuff if at least one item equipped is high enough tier (even if not in hand).

tested "cone of cold", really strong indeed ! Freezing Pillar is so overtune I respeced into it as soon as I cast it for the first time Also I like the synergy between frost spells and Charge, I'm still trying to figure out what are the conditions for an enemy to shatter but.. yeah quite fun !

i can say that blast of frost (aka cone of cold) is also really good, just a boatload of damage, albeit over time. but nothing quite compares to how they implemented freezing pillar in this game, nothing quite like seeing from just a few meters away how you insta-kill a batch of enemies with a gigantic block of ice that falls from the sky. makes me want to roll with an SC Tekehu or frost wizard in Deadfire again.

Hey everyone, A new patch is now available! This update includes important fixes, so be sure to update your game when you see it. If you are encountering any problems, please continue to let us know at support.obsidian.net. Thanks for playing, and we appreciate your support! — The Avowed Team Crashes & Major Issues Resolved a crash related to GameThread timing out. The player will no longer crash after pressing ESC upon climbing a ladder. The player will no longer crash when playing on PC with an Xbox Account is signed in and internet connection is lost. The player will no longer experience a rare crash related to rendering. Quests & Area Design Yatzli now correctly advances "A Path to the Garden" quest even if "One Last Drink" was completed before meeting Temerti & Yatzli in Thirdborn. Ofryc will now appear as intended in Paradis near the end of the quest "Dawntreader". "Shadows of the Past" quest now progresses correctly if the player enters Naku Kubel immediately after it becomes accessible. Sanza now correctly rewards the player when turning in the first map to him. Wilfrith's Map is now removed from the player's inventory when giving it to Sanza. A "Quest Available" icon is no longer present on the map for a quest giver in Shatterscarp if they have been killed. A conversation with Yatzli during the quest will no longer drop earlier than intended. A dream conversation in Dawnshore no longer ends earlier than intended. Corrected some conditionals that were preventing certain end slides from playing. The quest marker for the quest “Precious Light” appears where intended if Adelgund was spoken before the quest starts. Amadio in Emerald Stair no longer reacts as if the xaurips have been killed if they've been damaged by an elemental interaction. Sargamis' dialogue Some dreamthralls outside of Naku Kubel will no longer drop dead out of nowhere. Some xaurips in the Deadfall Highlands in Shatterscarp will no longer follow the player outside of the intended area. Barrier collision is now correctly removed after the conversation in front of Naku Kubel in Shatterscarp and fast travelling to Party Camp. The encounter for Belderreno's bounty now spawns more reliably. The player can no longer skip talking to Darle . The player can no longer pick up 4 of the same Great Sword outside of Paradis. The player can now give the illicit goods to Daiko under certain conditions as part of the quest "The Wasteland Courier". The player can now properly exit the conversation with Forgemaster Dela in Solace Keep if they are unsure which weapon they want to upgrade. The player can no longer use parkour on the rocks to bypass part of the quest "Boundaries of Antiquity". The Pyromancer in Dawnshore no longer clips into and out of the ground. The quest "Message From Afar" will complete properly if the player exited The Strangleroot in an unintended way. There is now a proper quest marker for the quest "Mapping the Living Lands: Galawain's Tusks". Systems, Gameplay, and Balance Updates Corrected the requirements for the achievement “The Outer Worlds.” Arcane Veil Balance Adjustments: Damage Reduction: 50% → 25% Cooldown: 10s → 15s Environmental Fixes: Characters are no longer affected by electrified water when standing above it, jumping over it, or standing on an ice platform. Companion Behavior: Companions will now assist in combat more reliably. Companions will no longer rarely disappear after skipping a cutscene. Combat Encounters: Encounters with waves of enemies now spawn more reliably. Fixed rare cases where NPCs would teleport under the map. Improved behavior for water-borne electrical damage. Melee weapons (except one-handed swords) now properly trigger camera shakes when hitting enemies. Newly spawned enemies during combat now detect the player correctly. Player Movement & Camera Fixes: Fixed an issue where the Steel Garotte guard's weapon would enlarge when taking damage before a conversation. The player camera no longer lurches when opening a small lockbox. The player will no longer: Levitate briefly after opening a sarcophagus. Momentarily uncrouch when opening a small lockbox. Be unable to move after loading a save where Arcane Veil was active. Get stuck aiming down sights after a cutscene. Audio Improvements Adjusted music mix volumes based on story moments and vistas in: Emerald Stair Galawain's Tusks Shatterscarp The Garden Sound Fixes: "Arduous Delay of Motion" ability now plays an audio effect upon enemy impact. "Barbaric Shout" now correctly plays the shout sound every time it is used. Visual & Art Fixes Camera Framing Adjustments: Before dispelling the barrier to Naku Kubel. In conversations with gossiping Fiorian Citizens in Emerald Stair. During "The Siege of Paradis" quest. In Naku Kubel. With Cinzia in Thirdborn Improved fog appearance in the opening area of The Garden. Adjusted lighting near the Shrine to Skaen in Emerald Stair. NPCs now correctly look at the player rather than at the camera during the debate with Giatta, Vidarro, and Quillici in Fior mes Iverno. Removed graphical artifacts from the dreamscourge effect in Emerald Stair near Farmer's Market User Interface (UI) & Controls Fixed "Insufficient Funds" and strikethrough text incorrectly appearing in store screens. Cloud Syncing: When saving fails, a more descriptive error message now appears. If save sync fails after logging in, a dialog will now display listing the failed save syncs. HUD & Indicators: Adjusted directional damage indicators to not display during damage-over-time effects. Fixed an issue where damage numbers were previously failing to appear. Clarified text for Cross Save pop-ups. Loot windows now show correct values for stacked coins. Controller & Inventory Fixes: Steam & Xbox icons now appear in the Main Menu to indicate the logged-in account. Settings now correctly apply saved controller layouts after restarting the game. Upon crafting the maximum amount of an item, focus now returns to that item’s recipe entry. Inventory values are now hidden for items that cannot be sold (e.g., quest items and upgrade materials). Misc. Corrections were made to the Credits Tutorials in French no longer have images with English text.

Hi, check this out! We found a big box in my father-in-law's attic and in it - among other stuff - was an old German youth magazine. "Why did he keep this?" we asked ourselves - until we discovered this: Awesome

Hey everyone! Patch 1.2.2 is here, bringing a variety of fixes and improvements based on your feedback. From crash and quest fixes to gameplay tweaks and UI updates, we’ve addressed several community-requested issues to make your experience even better. As always, if you run into any other issues or have feedback, be sure to reach out—we appreciate your support! Community-Requested Fixes Making Crafting and Upgrade System more Approachable Updates to Equipment Tier difference feedback and penalties/bonuses: Changed Tier penalty system from a hard tier to tier system and made it dynamic based on players equipment and the tier (and sub-tier) of the enemy. Tier difference rules now only apply when there is a +/- 4 level gap. Tier II enemies will now play a small reaction animation when struck by lower-tier weapons, instead of not reacting at all. Reduced damage reduction when player weapons are closer in tier to an enemy. Significantly decreased how often companions comment about player needing better armor and/or weapons. Upgrade materials can no longer be sold to merchants to inadvertently make upgrading difficult. We have a longer-term fix involving buying back from merchants in the works. Missing NPCs In specific situations, some NPCs weren’t where they should be. Saving the game, and re-loading will put them back where they should be. We will have a fix soon that fixes the situation completely and doesn’t require a save and load. Quest & Exploration Fixes The brambles in the Delemgan Glade will now vanish when the Adragan Heart is acquired, preventing players from getting stuck inside. Grysca (the apothecary) now correctly speaks with the player to advance An Untimely End, even if they previously encountered a bug with Thalla the Ogre spawning twice. Added a system to respawn key characters when loading a save if they were previously missing and blocking quest progression (including Ambassador Hylgard and The Watcher Runyd). Companion & NPC Improvements Reviving companions in combat now restores them to 75% of their maximum health instead of 50%. Starting health of companions has been increased to help with their viability in combat. Merchants & Economy Merchants at the Dawnshore docks now offer 'Fine' gear in addition to 'Common' gear. Crashes & Major Issues Removed chance to crash when casting Corrosive Siphon on destructible objects. Optimized resource handling of VFX while the game is paused via radial menus to prevent rare leaks and crashes. Quest & Area Design Fixed invisible collision blocking the player in Strangleroot. Prevented players from charging into unintended areas in Strangleroot, avoiding quest progression issues. Enemies now navigate the bridges of the lava tubes more consistently. First Contact with the Enemy quest now progresses correctly if all badges are collected before speaking to Nauki. Players can now complete Steel Resolve after the main quest in Emerald Stair if they had completed enough objectives beforehand. Kowha now responds correctly if the player returns to them after starting One Last Drink. Dialog with Giatta upon leaving Naku Tedek now triggers consistently when loading saves before the conversation. Updated Mapping the Living Lands quest conditions to allow starting from future regions before talking to the quest giver in Dawnshore. Updated A Lady Never Tells quest flow so it correctly completes in the quest log when starting via the courtesan, getting the shipment, then speaking to Giuliana. Governor Ignasi’s option to turn in the spy can now only be triggered once instead of being repeatable. Conversations with leaders in the final area no longer end prematurely when choosing the Let me reconsider option. Made an additional ending option for the leadership conclave available to players who initially backed out but wish to reconsider. Adjusted environment art near the Trantons bounty in Emerald Stair to prevent bounty loot from becoming unobtainable. Previously missing voice-over lines in ambient content now play correctly. Systems & Gameplay Improvements Seeds of Vengeance summons now scale correctly with health and damage. One-handed weapon Parry enchantments now function as intended. Party buffs from the player now correctly target companions only, instead of summoned creatures. Kai no longer gets stuck if using Unbending Defense while mid-air with Leap of Daring. Improved frame rate when rendering damage numbers on multiple enemies at once. Improved item randomization when restocking shops. Blast ability for wands now plays the correct visual and sound effects. Improved logic for animations on companions at the end of combat. Improved transitions on the top of Mt. Forja. Fixed interaction inconsistencies with objects and NPCs obscured by other characters. Controllers no longer rumble when loading a save before the final boss fight. Fixed issues with pond coin interactions. Added error codes for save game failures. Improved where characters are looking during certain conversations. Audio Improvements Cutscene in Naku Kebel now properly plays sound effects. Eating food from the radial menu now provides audio feedback. Increased volume of Woedica’s voiceover audio. Player voice now plays more consistently for abilities with vocal components. Improved transitions between music intensity levels when exploring. Music during the end slides now plays at the intended volume. Visual & Art Fixes Updated Banner Dwarf’s outfit LODs to reduce clipping during animation. Captain Ngunu’s neck is now properly merged with his head. Steel Garrote Soldiers have re-grown their missing hands. Improved shadow quality on Xbox Series X Performance Mode. User Interface (UI) & Controls Cloud transfer prompt is now properly centered on ultrawide displays. Xbox cloud transfer dialog buttons no longer shake rapidly when hovering over the bottom part of the button. Initial splash screens now properly support Chinese characters. Interaction prompts pop up more reliably. Opening a radial menu after leaving and returning to the game no longer triggers the pause menu. Removed unintended English characters in the One Last Drink quest journal for non-English languages. Cloud save UI now defaults to selecting the recommended option.

That's two million in two weeks. Even Ubisoft would have been pretty happy with that on some of their more recent underperformers. Doubly so if they had the comparably modest budget of KCD II... Embracer aren't minors either, after all. As said, to me this only confirms what's been happening for the past+ decade. The model of ever infusing more simple action into RPGs and simplifying RPG elements down has been pushed to its limits -- the Bioware/Bethesda school, basically. By now these games are competing with all the action/adventure type of games that have been including RPG-lite elements since The Witcher 3 hit it big. That doesn't mean similar projects are destined to underperform. That only means you need an absolutely stellar game and/or a wholly unique take on the form to still stand out from the crowd. Bluntly put, Veilguard would have had it even harder had it neither had a Bioware nor a Dragon Age logo attached. Meanwhile, studios such as FromSoft, Larian or Warhorse first thrived in their own niches. The games they started making were considered too risky for any of the industry players. "We're an industry about instant gratification", they would have told FromSoftware. "Well there's dungeons, kinda. But where are the dragons?" That's what they would have asked Warhorse. "Turn-based tactical combat? Table-top simulations? In the 2000s? Go make this more like Diablo", they'd actually told Larian since their early days. "All of you guys don't fit in, sorry." Then all of these grew, both in studio size and target audiences. In parts because there's far more people playing video games now than ever, which also means a broader range in taste. And then they all could offer experiences that, on their levels of production, see no direct competition whatsoever. (Well, Soulslikes are a thing, mind you. But From are still considered the "Originals". And what better promotion is it to have an entire genre tag named after your own product? Jackpot, baby!)

We’ve released a small patch today to help repair some game files in the build. This update is purely for maintenance, and players should not notice any changes to their gameplay experience. Thank you for your support!

Gene Hackman :(

I just rewatched EuroTrip.