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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.

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!

All of Double Fine

This is a big one. Patch 1.05 features hundreds of bug fixes, balance changes, and new UI features. There are many minor fixes that are not listed in these notes. 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. New Features You can now rename save games. You can now change the portrait and sound set of characters from the character sheet. Click on the gear icon to open the customization window. You can only use this feature on player characters and hired (non-companion) characters. New Stash sorting. You can now sort stash by item type, enchant score, and sell value. Added a news feature on the main menu to keep you informed on patches and Kickstarter updates. Added a new color for unique items in the inventory. Added a new hotkey for switching weapon sets on selected characters. You can now bind extra mouse buttons to Ability hotkeys. There's a new option in the Difficulty settings to reset newly recruited companions to level 1 (without losing the experience) when they get added to the party for the first time. This will allow you to level up companions to your liking. Balance Reblanced XP rewards of some quests, particularly the bounty quests, to prevent parties from hitting max level before Twin Elms. Ciphers now start with 1/4 max Focus instead of 1/2. Wizard and Cipher's base endurance has been raised from 30 to 36, and per level from 10 to 12. Wizard and Priests health multipliers were raised from 3 to 4. Interdiction range has been reduced from 20 to 10. Tuned down damage on the Retaliation mod. Citzal's Spirit Lance will now do 50% more damage, is faster, and has an increased AoE. Sanguine Plate's Retaliate mod has been replaced with Spell Holding: Frenzy. Wind Blight's Returning Storm is now set to 1/encounter. Earth Blight's Teleport ability is now set to 2/encounter. Sturdy bonus is improved from +20 to +30 vs Prone. Hand and Key's Preservation has been replaced with Loyal. Aru Breaker's Preservation has been replaced with a +1 Speed. Angio's Gambeson's Reflex bonus is replaced with 1/day Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. Rebel's Call Preservation has been replaced with Wary. Lightning Strikes damage is increased by 25%. Fan of Flames damage is reduced by 25%. Minor Arcane Reflection base duration is changed to 60 seconds. Llengrath's Displaced Image gives 50% hit to graze conversion on Deflection and Reflex. Wizard's Double now grants +40 Deflection against a single attack. Mirrored Images now grants a base +30 Deflection. It decreases by 5 after each hit. Ilengrath's Safeguard's bonuses are now unified. Crucible of the Soul, Speaker to the Restless, and Steps to the Wheel ranges have been increased. Arcane Veil now grants +50 Deflection, with Hardened Veil adding +25, for a total of +75 Deflection. Scroll of Paralysis is now slightly weaker and has a higher skill requirement. All Spell Holdings are 2/encounter. Soul Shock radius reduced from 2.5 to 1.25. Blizzard damage reduced significantly and attack speed increased to from 0.2 to 0.8. Overwhelming Wave now uses a range of 30-40 and stun duration lowered from 10s to 8s. Noxious Burst trap damage now is in line with other player trap damage. Reduced the accuracy on higher level player traps. Unbroken is now a per encounter ability. Malignant Cloud damage increased. Ghost Blades set to foe only. Death Ring damage slightly raised, made foe only. Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar switched over to foe only. Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon set to foe only. Stag's Horn damaged lowered. Reflex and Deflection penalties cut in half, and reduced duration from 15 to 10. Bracers of Spiritual Power and Archer's Gloves reduced damage from +20% to +10%. Scroll of Revival AoE reduced, range slightly reduced, and restored endurance halved. Marked Prey and Sworn Enemy have been set to 0 recovery actions, so they can be used and the Ranger/Paladin can immediately act again. Winter Wind has had its damage, range, and push decreased. Base interrupt has been increased. Vile Thorns has had its damage increased and range decreased. Petrified damage bonus changed from x4 to x2. Items, Spells, and Abilities Many spells and abilities will have more accurate and updated stat blocks and improved output in the combat log, tooltips, and character sheet. Modal abilities now have activation and deactivation timers. Fixed an issue where some AOE attacks were not displaying the extra Intellect bonus properly. Added new effect when petrified. A character does not need to be in Stealth/Search mode to detect traps that are 4 Mechanics difficulties lower that the skill score. The detection will happen automatically now. Added an animation to the Fox and the Hunter ability and removed the damage effect. Second Chance will no longer trigger the defeat screen if the entire party goes down right before the effect fires. Fixed display of the cast UI for Seven Nights She Waited While the White Winds Wept. Tuning Wheel's effect is not hostile anymore. Painful Interdiction is now correctly marked as hostile. Escape should now always prevent disengagement attacks. Seven Nights She Waited While the White Winds Wept will no longer attack allies. Barbarian Threatening Presence will no longer spam the combat log when the Barbarian loses all endurance. NPC Chanters will now resume chanting once they use their invocations. Getting maimed will not clear fatigue. All wall spells should now disappear when combat ends. New Glossary entries for spellbind, spell holding, and spell striking. Switched the ingredients for Freezing and Shocking lashes. Druid's Wildstrike Belt is now working as intended. Marked Prey is now working at intended. Draining Whip is now working as intended. One Stands Alone is now working as intended. Interrupting Blows is now working as intended, and will correctly increase interrupt. Mortification of the Soul is now working as intended, and should only award 1 wound. Scion of Flame, Spirit of Decay, Secrets of the Rime and Heart of the Storm should now correctly increase damage of all abilities. Driving Flight will now work properly with Blunderbuss type guns. The Retaliate mod should not strike allies after using Field Triage. Pet fatigue has been removed. About 30 item icons have been updated, including some backer items, such as the Hermit's Hat. Battle-forged status effect now ends when combat ends. This should prevent it from stacking because of save/load. Fix for Elusive Quarry so its status effects now end when combat ends. This should prevent it from stacking because of save/load. Wild Leech is now combat only and the Leech effect will last until combat ends. This fixes issues with it not working with save/load correctly. Fix to Total Max Focus stat that would reset to the base value if you had the Greater Focus talent after a save/load. This is a retroactive fix that will restore your Cipher with an extra +10 focus if you have the talent. More fixes to status effect suppression so it will be more foolproof. Quests and Companions Party member stats on the character sheet will now show properly if the companion is removed and re-added from the stronghold. Fixed issues where companions could lose their items when assigned to the stronghold. Grieving Mother's Perception and Intellect scores have been switched. The Man Who Waits: The citizens of the Sanitarium will no longer become hostile if you kill and loot Azo after the Sanitarium riot and then fight flesh golems. Fix is retroactive. Fixed issue with a reputation loss with Gilded Vale when entering Raedric's Hold. Removed disposition exploit with the Records Keeper. A few encounter placement changes. Fixed issues with stronghold hirelings becoming hostile. Retroactive fix to update Sanitarium quest stage to proper state if you already talked to Ethelmoer and then asked for Sanitarium directions from a city guard. Added retroactive fix if you've advanced Heritage Hill quest to Icantha but then asked a city guard for directions to Heritage Hill. 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. Attacking any of the main three Defiance Bay factions after having secured their invitation to the hearing will now make Lady Webb give you an invite in the name of Dunryd Row. Fixed issues with the Hermit of Hadret House quest. If Sul or Oernos were defeated before speaking to Desthwn for the first time then The Old Queen and the New King quest will not revert to an earlier quest stage Hendyna's conversation is fixed up to be properly linked together. Fixed a case where one of Clyver's responses would not appear in conversation if you ask him twice about the hearing. Killing Alwah while she appears in Oldsong now prevents her from appearing alive in Galawain's Maw when you turn in the Prison of Ice quest Fixed an issue where the Hall of Revealed Mysteries would turn hostile after opening the door to the Elder Archives and then re-loading into the scene (while not in stealth). Rinatto will no longer appear in the Celestial Sapling if you convince him to leave Twin Elms as part of the Hard Bargain quest.) Fixed the top floor of the Sanitarium so "The Man Who Waits" quest is now working for those that were having problems. UI Changed the display of most stat multipliers to be percentage based. Added Shift as a default control for multi-selection, in addition to Ctrl. Inverted the Stronghold log. Improved the output in the Bestiary and added beast abilities. Portraits now turn grey if Stamina is being capped by Health or Fatigue. Improved multi-selection. Stronghold adventures will now show the duration before you embark. Added apply button to resolution options screen. Default stealth key on Linux is now Ctrl. Weapon set buttons are now disabled when Spirit Shifted. Fixed several issues with containers and mouse cursor state on hover. Fixed an issue where the Lore requirement on scrolls was always displaying as red text. Fixed an issue where weapon sets were not visually unlocking. HUD does not upscale until 1920x1200. Adjusted position of the Concentration skill in the Character Sheet. Cleaned up problems with improper ability icons showing if you switch party members with hotkeys. Corrected a tooltip string on the voice volume slider. Fixed issues with tooltips being obscured in the inventory screen. Fixed a problem with Stronghold prisoners showing temp text at times. Improved loading screen scaling for resolutions greater than 1920 x 1080 Tooltips now include sell price where appropriate. Chanter inspection UI should now display the correct durations. Armors should now correctly display DR in the inspection UI. Fixed attack roll formula tooltips so they should now be readable in lower screen resolutions. Weapon sets should now show the proper weapon rarity coloring. Expert mode is now hidden on the main menu to avoid confusion about it not being selectable outside of a game. Changed slider bars so that they can slide the entire length of the options menu. Changed the order of the option buttons to make them more user-friendly. General Fixes Removed exploit of being able to transition into a new area with a dead player character. . Spells and abilities stuck in 'Already Activated' state will be fixed whenever a game is loaded. Now camping in a stronghold map when Brighthollow is unlocked uses Brighthollow instead. Party members will no longer switch weapon sets when charmed. Resolved a problem where misses on some secondary attacks were not being reported in the combat log. Camera should center on party members faster. Trial of Iron: Loading a game will now force a save to happen to prevent save scumming. Fixed many issues related to auto pause. Firearms will now reload when combat ends on alternate weapon sets. Poison and interrupted VO now has a cooldown. Allow quick-loading when UI windows, like dialogue, are up. Fix to enemy encounters sometimes decreasing in difficulty without the player changing the option. Fixed additional problems with prestigious visitors visiting the Stronghold after they had been killed. Fixed issue where Guest Hirelings that were available at the Stronghold for hire were not being saved properly into the save games. Removed unneeded navigation blockers in the Valewood that were causing animal companions to become stuck.

These are the patch notes for 1.04, which is now available on Steam. It may be a bit before it's available on GOG and Origin, as they manually put it up. We are now working on patch 1.05 and will launch the beta for it during the week of April 20th. We're continuing to read through support threads and e-mails. Thank you, everyone! Update for GOG Linux Users: 1.04 is available on GOG, but not as a patch - unfortunately you have to download the full version of the game. GOG doesn't support patching for Linux for Pillars of Eternity unfortunately. They have the file version listed as 1.2.0.3. Items, Spells, and Abilities AoE indicators should now properly resize if the caster has a sub 10 Intellect score. Fixed an issue with over-time aura spells not applying the correct value on the final tick. Knock Down will now correctly be applied for the full duration of the effect. Mantle of The Dying Boar will now trigger at 33% Endurance with the effect of 5 Endurance a tick. Talisman of the Unconquerable will now give a 1.25 Focus multiplier instead of .25. Blooded should trigger properly in all cases now. Boar Animal Companion bonus damage should now work as intended. Prone Reduction mod should now work correctly. Quests and Companions Fixed Aloth and Kana speaking when they weren't in the party in one of the last levels. Sagani's fox-specific banters now require the appropriate items in the player inventory. Falanroed's dialogue no longer displays a script node. Durance will now properly discuss your dream with you if you've already discussed his staff. Relaxed some constraints on Durance's quest conversation. This allows all characters, regardless of background or stats, to finish his quest. Players can now loot the nest in Oldsong. Fixed an invalid conditional check in one of Pallegina's conversations. Heritage Hill tower will be fully revealed when exploring the map. Fixed spawn issue in a scripted interaction near the end of the game. Fixed an invalid creature spawn in the Ogre Lair in Od Nua. Sagani no longer references the antagonist by name before you know it. A container in the Catacombs of Od Nua will now remember if it was looted. The "Master's Tools" quest will now work if you have the required items before starting the quest. The "A Two Story Job" scripted interaction will not require a second grappling hook to climb down from the window if one was already used to climb up. General Fixes Fix for camera movement problems when the game is paused or in a cutscene. Fix to retroactively restore party movement in saves that display movement speed problems. Made some fixes to movement speed problems that were being reported (e.g. Boots of Speed). Fixed stacking health problems with the gul's "Vomit Blood" ability. This fix should retroactively fix your saved games. Optimized Save/Load game system for better performance. Optimized how scene transitions are handled for better memory usage on 32-bit machines. This may allow players to transition to new areas without running out of memory. Sound Sets from hired companions will now be properly restored when adding them to the party from the stronghold. "All Stronghold Upgrades" achievement now checks 25 upgrades instead of 26. This will properly reward the achievement if you already have fully upgraded your stronghold. The "Kill All Dragons" achievement will now properly fire if they are killed indirectly (like by a trap). This is a retroactive fix and will be rewarded if the dragons are already dead. Fixed issue where store prices were getting exceptionally large after receiving a discount. Fixed issues with gaining infinite XP from bad Stronghold data. World time will not get very large in some cases after Save/Load. Modelling offset with Durance's head has been adjusted. Icon scale is now correct on Hearth Harvest and Reghar Konnek. All shaders will now compile properly under DirectX 11. Restored all the missing effects in the intro cutscene. Removed Blunderbuss item from an early game loot table. Changed the cursor type on the blood pool in the Temple of Skaen to conversation. Fixed a few save game issues with dead summoned creatures. Fixed issue where occasionally a crash would occur when initializing the Steam API. Draggable windows are now handled properly when running at very high resolutions. Swamp Lurker's animation won't spaz anymore when the game is paused. Fixed an issue to prevent binding mouse buttons to window controls. Game will now pause if you Alt-Tab during a cutscene in full screen mode. Audio will now resume properly if the game loses focus. Fixed an issue with infinite load screen if you transition while hovering over a container. Characters will now wait for their idle animation before trying to reload which fixes an animation sync issue. Damaged characters performing AoE attacks will not overload their AI state stacks anymore.

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.

Greetings Obsidian Fans! We’re extremely excited about our upcoming RPG, and we know you are too. We wish we could tell you all about it right now… but we’re going to hold off until the time is right. What we did want to talk about was a question a lot of you have been raising: “Will this upcoming game feature any lootboxes or other microtransactions?” The answer is simply: “no.” No microtransactions, of any kind, in our game. We also wanted to say a word about our partnership with Private Division, our publisher on this title. Far from “pushing” us to put anything -- microtransactions or otherwise -- into our game, Private Division has been incredibly supportive of our vision, our creative freedom, and the process by which we work to make RPGs. They have been fantastic partners, and we are extremely excited to work with them through release, to put what we know is going to be an amazing game into as many hands as possible. As always, thank you so much for your support. We know we couldn’t do what we do without our fans, and we want you to know that we put you guys first in every decision we make. Obsidian

Hey everyone! Your friendly, neighborhood, marketing drone here with what I hope will be an eye-opening insight into gamers' thoughts on DLC. First off: a big thank you to everyone who participated in our survey. Hearing your thoughts helps us understand your opinions better, and make better games. Background For those who don't know, on October 4, 2017, we published a survey, asking some key questions about players' preferences regarding DLC, and a bit about their backgrounds, as well. As anyone at Obsidian will tell you, I am big on data, and have been pushing for stuff like this for a while. So, hey, thanks for making me look good with the absolutely huge response we got to the survey: Forecast Response: ~12,000 - 18,000 Actual Responses: 55,035 Sources: Kickstarter/Fig Backers, Obsidian Forums, Obsidian Newsletter, Reddit (big thanks to the awesome humans at /r/projecteternity and /r/Fallout!), Twitter, Facebook, and from many of our wonderful developer and publisher colleagues. The survey ran until October 20, 2017, and we thank everyone who participated and all our partners who assisted us! For those who missed it, here is the amazing survey background art we used, as created by our Community Manager, Aarik Dorobiala (presented here in 1080p for those who want to use it as a wallpaper!): A Note on Sampling Methodology The statisticians among you will have noticed that our data-gathering methodology was not blind, and that's an important thing to call out. Because we didn't use a random sample of our customers or backers, but rather went to specific areas and allowed those populations to self select, we know that some of the data in this survey will be skewed toward those specific population groups. For our purposes, however, that's fine. We are interested in engaged gamers who are likely to be interested in our DLC (and DLC secularly), and we were willing to sacrifice some methodological precision if it meant driving more participation in the survey for this go-round. The fact that the survey got more popular than we ever imagined is a bonus, but it also means we need to take these results as directional, rather than strictly determinative, since the populations who responded to the survey may or may not be representative of the total population of RPG fans out there. -- Section 1: Demographics While the first section of the survey asked about DLC preferences and the second, optional, section asked about demographics, I nevertheless want to show the demographic results first, so readers can understand a bit about who answered these questions before they see how the questions were answered. The demographics section was 100% optional, but it's not clear that everyone understood that. Although we did have some folks opt out of certain questions by skipping them, we may have had significantly more if we added an affirmative opt-out answer choice to every question, which is what we will do in the future. This was my mistake, but one of the things to think about when you review these results is that I treated this piece at least in part as a "meta-survey." That is, I wanted to test certain questions and methodologies as much as gather data itself, so I can improve our data gathering and survey user-friendliness going forward. Please note that we have omitted a question for the sake of consumer privacy. Question 1: Age We were a bit surprised to see how many of the survey respondents were teenagers, but otherwise, our age demographic for this survey tracks pretty well with what we expect for the "typical" gamer: about 3/4s are between the ages of 20 and 34. Question 2: Gender While we expected that we would get a majority male response, we did not expect it to be this skewed. Only about 2% of people skipped the question, though we were asked why we did not have a third, or opt-out gender option, such as "Prefer not to answer." That was an oversight -- I simply believed people would opt out by skipping the question. Question 3: Country of Residence We were very gratified to have people from nearly every country in the world reply to our survey -- despite the fact that it was only available in English. While the numbers aren't clear on the chart, Germany featured the most respondents from a non-Anglophone nation (2,431), which was almost as many as Australia! Since the map doesn't fully show everything due to size constraints, here's the top 10 countries by number of respondents: USA - 25,089 UK - 3,939 Canada - 3,909 Australia - 2,471 Germany - 2,431 Poland - 1,651 Sweden - 1,412 France - 1,132 Russia - 1,070 Finland - 923 Question 4: - OMITTED Question 5: Preferred Gaming Platform Windows PC was by far the most commonly used gaming platform for respondents, followed distantly by Android Phone, PlayStation 4, and Portable Consoles, in that order. No other system was a major occupier of time for most of our respondents. One thing that was interesting to see was just how much more popular Android was than iOS among our respondent group. One note: our survey was quite popular on the subreddit for PlayStation 4 (/r/PS4), but the equivalent Xbox One subreddit (/r/XboxOne) does not allow surveys, which may have biased console usership results. Question 6: Preferred Purchase Platform Tracking with the use of Windows as the primary gaming platform, it's no surprise that Steam is by far the dominant platform for respondents' game purchasing decisions. Of considerable interest, however, is how high up on the list official console digital marketplaces ranked. This suggests a shift among leading-edge (or "core") gamers toward digital purchasing on console, away from brick-and-mortar or other physical disc distribution. NB: GOG.com's abbreviation should be rendered GOG, not GoG, apologies for the typo in my chart! -- Section 2: DLC Questions This segment consisted of mandatory questions, and just about everyone completed it -- we had less than a 1% abandonment rate on the survey. While there were ten questions asked, we omit the tenth, as it involves internal Obsidian benchmarking, and was originally geared toward a specific consumer-targeted audience, not the much larger audience we ended up getting, so the results aren't super valuable. Question 1: Owned Obsidian DLCs It's no surprise that Fallout: New Vegas, still one of our most popular games, remains the leader in terms of DLC ownership. We also had a significant number of respondents who owned DLC in Pillars of Eternity and, surprisingly, Neverwinter Nights 2, a game that's now more than ten years old. Only about one in ten respondents did not purchase any Obsidian DLC at all. Question 2: Acquisition Method This question got a lot of feedback from the community, and I'll will revise it if we ask a similar question in the future. The feedback largely centered on a few issues: A large number of respondents commented that, while they would not commonly refund/return the base game in order to acquire the Game of the Year (GotY) Edition, they would refrain from purchasing a game at all once DLC of any kind is announced until a GotY or other complete edition is released. Many people felt that the question insufficiently described why or how the DLC was attractive and therefore made it difficult for them to assess the value of a season pass or DLC. Everyone loves sales, so that answer choice could have been folded into the others as a value-add. Question 3: Preferred DLC Features I color-coded these by type so it would be easier for everyone to parse respondents' preferences. Overwhelmingly, respondents want more game content -- that is, they want the game itself to be bigger, deeper, longer. They want to be able to come back to it, or continue on with it. However, there was also a significant number of respondents who were looking for expanded or additional game systems, such as multiplayer (co-operative) or replayable modes such as roguelikes. Anything tagged as "competitive" or "PvP" was not considered attractive, however. Question 4: Quantity of DLC Respondents were very clear here, and their responses track with the bias toward content-based features in the previous question: people want bigger, deeper DLC for their money, not small stuff. Question 5: Influential Factors The most influential factor for the majority of respondents in informing their decision to purchase DLC is price. This could imply that respondents feel that DLC is generally overpriced, that DLC generally doesn't strike them as a good value at MSRP, or simply that gamers are cost conscious. Among the other factors, word-of-mouth factors such as a friend's recommendation or score from bona fide other gamers were the most important in influencing buying decisions. Interestingly, most respondents felt that time between base game launch and DLC launch was not a major factor in their decision to purchase -- this could be interpreted in two ways: either respondents don't mind waiting for deep content, or they feel that they won't purchase new DLC no matter what, until it's on sale. Questions 6 & 7: Price Calibration These two questions were designed to work in tandem. I was looking to anchor respondents at a $45-dollar base price for a game, and then see if raising that base price in a subsequent, identical question, caused them to re-value an associated season pass. Given the structure of the questions and the expected effect of the anchoring, the 7.8% difference in average expected price can be considered not statistically significant. Basically, the base price of a game, alone, was not enough to make gamers think differently about the value of the season pass (and, by extension, other associated content). We got a lot of feedback to these questions that price alone was not sufficient for them to evaluate the value of a season pass, and, of course, that's true. To give some insight into what I was trying to accomplish with these two questions: I was interested in whether putting a change in base price in front of a consumer's face would cause a cognitive bias that might affect his price tolerance for ancillary purchases. In other words, does price alone have a direct relationship to perception of value or further willingness to engage with a product? Looking back on this, was this question the best way to evaluate this heuristic? Probably not. I've had some suggestions for improvements that I intend to incorporate into future question series, and I'm going back to my behavioral economics texts to deepen my own understand -- but I still think the results are interesting, nevertheless. One other note: while our respondents put the desired price of season passes at around $17, in reality, RPG gamers pay about $25 for them (when purchased as a separate product, not as part of a Deluxe Edition or GotY) on average, according to industry sales data. Question 8: Free DLC Pretty clear message here: people like free DLC. 4% of respondents, however, clearly feel that DLC is not good, in any form. Question 9: Genre Preference Everyone hated this question's answer choice structure. I tried something newfangled by allowing people to drag and drop their answer choices in a stack-ranked list, and we got a ton of feedback on it. First, it apparently didn't work on mobile -- sorry about that, I should've tested it better. Second, a lot of people commented that they felt pretty much equally weak on a variety of genres but felt they were forced to rank them better than each other, anyway. This is interesting, though, because despite a lot of these comments, Sports and Casual emerged as the clear losers. You'd think that if, say, the bottom five or six genres (which is what most people said they didn't care about) were equally lousy to people, you'd have a fairly even distribution, since the order of the answer choices was randomized. So, while our respondents didn't like the way this question was structured (and I'll kill it for next time), it is interesting to see that it forced the truth out -- sports and casual games are the least liked. Therefore Obsidian is killing our latest secret project: Lord Bolingbroke Polo 2018. Just kidding, we wouldn't do a casual game. -- Conclusions All in all, lots of great takeaways here, and we'll be using the data internally to ask some even more in depth questions. For example: do people who own Pillars of Eternity DLC also own Tyranny DLC? Do Europeans have different DLC preferences from North Americans? Why do RPG fans hate sports games? There's so much to be learned here, and we are so grateful to our fans for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. We will continue to get better at making surveys, and we hope you will continue to engage with us and let us know how you feel, so that we can try to make the best games possible for you. We know we can't please everybody all the time (this survey proves that), and we're not trying to do that, but if this kind of research can help us get better at making the games we love to make, then our marketing team is doing its job.

Greetings employees of Halcyon, We want to take this opportunity to thank the incredible team behind The Outer Worlds. It is because of their hard work and dedication to this project that we received the Best Narrative, Best Performance - Ashly Burch, Best RPG, and Game of the Year nominations at The Game Awards. To all of those who voted for us in The Game Awards, you are all fantastic and we are so grateful for your support. The reception to The Outer Worlds has been unbelievable to see, and even just being nominated means a lot. However, the journey isn't over yet as we are excited to announce that we will be expanding the story through DLC next year! Details will be made available at a later date. Now we would like to allow our game directors, Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, to share a message with you all: We just wanted to personally thank our team for doing a wonderful job and our fans for their tremendous support. And Tim would like to say what an honor it was to work with me. – Leonard Whatever, Leonard. Now that we’ve finished, I expect that certain photographs will be destroyed, as per our agreement. – Tim

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Edit Nov. 15: Greetings fellow spacers, We want to inform you that Patch 1.1.1.0 will not be ready until Monday, November 18th. We apologize for this inconvenience as we tried to get this out to you this week, but due to some unfortunate circumstances the patch will not be ready until early next week. Again we are sorry to have to push this update back. We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this delay. ________________________ Greetings fellow spacers, At this time, we would like to let you all know that we are looking at releasing a patch next week to implement some changes and bug fixes. This patch is currently in the testing phase and as long as no other issues occur during this time, we hope to release it to you all sometime next week. Please be aware that this can change, but we are working hard to make this timeline and things are looking good thus far. Resolved Issues: • The crashing issue in Tartarus • Increase Font Size - Conversations/Subtitles • Muffled sound effects occur at random times for players on the PS4 • Companions dying and failing companion quests on modes other than Supernova • Unable to finish "Radio Free Monarch" • Trophy "Not the Best Choice" fails to unlock properly If you do not see your particular issue or suggestion listed above, please understand that we are continually reviewing and working on items that you are sharing with us. We will continue to work on updates and patches to see how we can make your gaming experience the best it possibly can be. To continue to report issues and share suggestions, please visit our The Outer Worlds: Technical Support forums and search to see if a fellow player has already made a thread about it. If you find a thread with your issue or suggestion, feel free to comment in that thread with any details you would like to share. If you cannot find a thread with your issue or suggestion, please start a new thread detailing the issue/suggestion and then please contact our publishing partner, Private Division, at their website here. Doing so will help ensure that your specific issue or suggestion is in their queue, which allows us to prioritize requests to provide the fastest possible turnaround time. Thank you all for your patience and understanding, and we are so grateful to have you all here with us.

Great article! I wanted to comment about the first point, combat. While I agree with you, I think it's also important to not make the companions too great. In BG2, for example, some of the companions were built with some downright weird stats allocation - Anomen, a cleric, had 13 wisdom, many fighters had less than 18 strength and many were uselessly multiclassed. This just made them more interesting and usually really drove the character point home. This worked because in party-based RPGs, as long as the companion has a role he can feel serviceably, he is useful enough. He does after all have 5 more charactesr to help him pull the weight, and you only really need one character of each role. So, what I'm trying to say is that I'll love to see characters creativity also presented in their stats and such even if it doesn't make 100% strategic sense. Another thing I think is important and you didn't mention - Most recent RPGs chose to have mostly the player initiate dialogue with companions. You know, you talk to them, you see what's new, they tell you about themselves then you do it again an hour later to see if any new option popped up. While this is fine, I think this is a bit overplayed. I think these sort of dialogues work much better when they are initiated by the companion (like the BG2 banters.) I think it makes them feel more alive and active when they can decide to talk with you just as much as you can decide to talk with them. And since you mentioned influence - I personally hope to not see it in P:E. I think it ruins the immersion and makes me care a little less about the companion - Especially if there are "prizes" for high loyalty. Instead of caring about this character as a person, he becomes a tool I use to gain some bonuses or to "max out" the loyalty meter.

Here are the update notes for Update 3.02. Major Fixes Fixed an issue where some player's game would reset after completing Part 1. Fixed an issue where some players couldn't activate the White Forge or enter Durgan's Battery. Fixed an issue with the final Eyeless SI becoming stuck if you selected yourself. Fixed an issue where some players would get stuck at the Caed Nua End Slide. Fixed multiple issues where some players received black screens on load/transitioning. White March Specific Iron Flail Front is no longer accessible before returning to Stalwart at the start of Part 2. Foundry map icon appears as soon as you visit the Foundry after activating Part 2. Updated the nav for Whitestone Hollow, Durgan's Battery Exterior, and Durgan's West Tower. Gwyn's Band of Union placed into a container in the Abbey. Fixed an issue with Kaoto not speaking to you at the top of the Abbey of the Fallen Moon. Added an addendum to the Rising Tide Quest regarding the sign of the tide. All robes in the Halls of Silence have had their name updated. SFX now plays during the Eyeless Scripted Interaction. Burning Pitch Trebuchet and Empowered/Heavy Cannon Blast will no longer gain benefit from Might or Intellect and are per rest. Eyeless 'Ray of Fire' no longer deals insane amounts of damage on Story Time. Fixed an issue with Cayron's Scar Frozen Water SI applying status effects to the wrong character. Summoned Crag Ogres no longer drop loot. Fixed an issue that was causing Relentless Storm to spam cast in Cayron's Scar. Villagers now comment about you defeating the Eyeless. Fixed an issue in Tealdor's dialogue where he would stop giving bounties. Fixed an issue where Mylla was disappearing after completing the quest 'Lost Child'. Fixed issue with screaming villagers audio persisting after Burning Hut SI. Magma Blights in the West Tower now drop loot. Updated the Skuldrak projectile to be an icicle. Fixed gas cloud VFX in the West Tower gas room. Bleakwalker Ghosts (Summoned during Ryona's Breastplate Quest) will now drop correct loot. Spirit animals Whitestone Cave now drop correct loot. Zahua image now shows during his End slides. Fixed an issue not being able to leave Zahua's vision during Secrets of Tacan. Fixed Zahua's conversations not triggering depending on how the quest was started during Secrets of Tacan. Can now re-enter Zahua's vision without reloading Whitestone Hollow. 'Secrets of Tacan' no longer fails if you speak to a vision after Save/Load. 'Secrets of Tacan' no longer fails if Zahua is killed after completion. Fixed an issue with Maneha only wanting to talk about the Fort. Dyrwood Areas Fixed an issue with combat not ending in Galawain's Maw. Fixed an issue where some players could not interact with Lord Raedric. Rectroactive fix made for Fragments of a Scattered Faith if the player has already looted the standard but didn't have Eder in the party. Gathbin and friends have been buffed during the Battle of Yenwood. Added more SFX to Yenwood Scripted Interaction. Chancellor Warrin no longer respawns in the Charred Barrel after the quest completes. Chancellor Warrin no longer hostiles the you if you previously killed all the patrons in the Charred Barrel. Corrected Gathbin and Chancellor Warrins speaker tags. Tortured Spirit in Cilant Lis should no longer reappear when returning to the map. Searing Falls will now have enemies when first visited. Angry Villagers and Marshal Forwyn no longer respawn at Caed Nua. Fixed an issue where the Soldier Ghost in Caed Nua Dungeons was not spawning. Retreating from enemies on Od Nua Level 13 will now end combat. Adra Animat in Od Nua Level 13 no longer respawns after Save/Load. Spells and Abilities Paladin's Liberation Exhortation now works on charmed allies. Rogues can now Sneak Attack off of Stun on Crit weapon effects. Rogue's Escape will now break engagement. Cipher's 'Amplified Thrust' no longer generates focus. Updated VFX for Recall Agony so that the effect lasts until the status effect ends. Adjusted the VFX for the mind wave spell to match the actual size of the spell aoe. Also added a light to it. Mental Binding no longer rolls extra rolls against defenses. Llengrath's Mental and Physical Shields can only be cast during combat Fixed an issue where Llengrath's Blunt Wisdom would give the wielder permanent accuracy and damage bonuses. Llengrath's Blunt Wisdom is no longer Superb, but has built in damage and accuracy bonuses. Necrotic Lance is now listed as a Hostile status effect. Fixed an issue where Minor Grimoire Imprint was stealing Chanter invocations. Druid's Wildstrike no longer applies to spell damage while spiritshifted. Ranger's 'Heal Companion' no longer casts twice. Powder Burns casting cone now locks to a target. Priest's Holy Meditation granted by Spell Defense will no longer grant the bonuses to enemies. Monk's Crucible of Suffering was proccing incorrectly if you also have Weapon Focus: Peasant. Fixed a problem where afflictions from Chanter Phrases were infinite. Updated Retaliate so it will roll against defenses. Fixed an issue where Savage Attack was affecting spell accuracy. Items Part 2 Soulbound weapons have been switched to universal (All weapon focuses will work with any Soulbound weapon). Fixed an issue where Cape of the Master Mystic was causing invisibility to be permanent. Wearing Boots of Speed now have proper running animations outside of combat. Damage Proof mods will no longer be suppressed by Quality mods. Tempered Helm will not be suppressed by Quality mods. Tomb Fragment no longer deals 25 Health on load. Executioner's Hood now heals the character instead of damaging them. Steadfast final unlock requirement is now 28 Might. Fixed an issue where St. Ydwen's Redeemer would get stuck at 1000/1000 damage. Stormcaller now resets unlocks after unbinding it. Updated St Ywdens Redeemers Divine Mark Proc so it won't also hit the wielder. Vent Pick and Dragon's Maw Shield 'Spellchance' proc now works correctly. Fixed an issue where Firebrand was using current equipped weapons stats instead of its own. Raw Damage Lash on Gyrd Haewanes Stenes increased to 20%. Fenwalkers now takes off 2 seconds from stuck, paralyzed, and hobbled durations. Fixed an issue where paralyze that lasted less than 3 seconds caused wearer of Fenwalkers to become unresponsive. The Blunderbuss 'Silver Flash' blind duration reduced to 2 seconds. Fixed multiple issues with Spider Trap's icon and name. Fixed issue where Elryns Jacket used too many Enchant Points. Fixed an issue where Red Reed Wand could summon outside of combat. Boots of Speed no longer slow down Spirit Shifted Druids. Abydon's Hammer will now get removed from the parties Inventory if a party member takes it and sacrifices themselves. Acuan Giamas Spells/Abilities no longer stolen indefinitely. Greenstained Boots now heal the correct amount. Added VFX for Abydon's Hammer ability 'Ring of the Ancient Forge'. Fixed audio issues with Ring of the Ancient Forge ability. Added duration to Mossy Rocks Summon. Robes of the Tidebringer now have correct name and description. Ray of Pain will now deal damage when triggered from Echoing Misery. Spell Defense: Eyestrike will no longer hit allies. 'Zephy' granted by the poleaxe 'Winds Arm' no longer hits the wielder. Infestation of Spiders Trap will now lower Constitution. Fixed Concelhaut Skull Pet VFX. Fixed positions of the VFX for a few of the weapon mods (Burning Lash, Shocking Lash, Durance Staff Fire, and Slaying Lash). Gameplay All spells and abilities should now end at the end of combat. There were a few (Watchful Presence, for example) that could extend past the end of combat. Fixed a problem where placing traps too close to each other would remove the previous trap and losing the item. Devil of Caroc now has 78 attribute points. Legendary Recipe now requires level 16. Visitors will now leave the stronghold after you resolve their dilemma. Characters no longer lose health in Story Time after being Charmed/Dominated. AI should now properly target their own animal companions for various spells and effects. Heal Companion has been added to Ranger's AI. Bashing now generates focus and procs carnage. Fixed an issue where items would appear highlighted when equipped. Beam Spell VFX no longer persists after combat. Fixed an issue where the knockout injury System Shock did not lowers defense against prone. Fixed an issue where Soul Essences could detect your party while in scouting mode. Attack animations interrupted by summon weapon duration running out will no longer break Wizards spells/attacks. Fixed an issue with companions not dropping weapons upon death while using a summoned weapon. Buffed Bog Oozes. Fixed an issue where they had the incorrect armor/weapons. Potions of Major and Minor Recovery adjusted to properly lower the duration of incoming hostile effects. You are now able to switch weapon sets while a summon weapon is active. Fixed an issue where spawned enemy units could have multiples of the same immunities. Fixed an issue where spawned enemy units did not have immunities. Characters will now have a bark when casting spells against enemies that are immune to it. UI Dominated friendlies now use a yellow selection circle. Text format of Soulbound items now display properly. Fixed an issue where white boxes would appear next to the character portrait. Brutal Backlash no longer causes the white square to appear on characters. Fixed an issue where the biography would not display when completing TWM2. Fixed an issue where *Missing Abilities* would appear on the action bar. Phrase duration now displays correctly in the tooltip. Fixed damage calculation of base attack damage in descriptions of Full/Primary Attack abilities. Faith and Conviction values now show correctly based on your dispositions. Second Skin now appears in the DR breakdown. Charmed or Dominated allies will no longer display their defenses. Fixed an issue where the Options menu was not aligned with the Stronghold menu. Removed strange icon behind the Enchantment Anvil in the Enchant Menu. Outmaneuvering now has a proper description. Solitary item mod description was improved. Updated various spells to be marked as a hostile effect. Fixed an issue where some healing over time effects was appearing as red in the console. Fixed attacks doing base Raw damage not showing damage type in combat log summary. Fixed an issue where companion barks were being displayed twice. Kidnappings will now display which companion is sent to rescue the visitor. Updated the ability icon 'Zephyr' granted by the poleaxe 'Winds Arm'. Pearlescent Orb now has the proper icon. Fixed an issue with Spider Web Immunity, Ancient Memory, and Wall of Draining spamming the combat log. Miscellaneous Keyboard navigation of ability bar now supports quick items. Fixed an issue where text was overlapping in the Bestiary in German. Fixed French gender issues with ghost villager in Od Nua Level 1. [Mac] Fixed Front End 'buy Part 2' link [Linux] Potentially fixed an issue with the mini map on Mesa 11.0.4 graphic driver. [Linux] Corrected an issue on Linux where water was rendering black in most areas. Fixed an issue with the save files being marked as read-only. This was preventing some players from finding their saves.

I said again and gona say it again. Stronghold event history tap should show recent event first. Its very hard to track what happened and when.

Avowed Obsidian Entertainment's next epic, first-person RPG set in the fantasy world of Eora.