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Greetings, Watchers! We’ve been hard at work delving deep into the code grimoire and tuning the balance of blade and spell—and today, we’re excited to share the results of that effort with a brand new patch. This update addresses a wide range of fixes and improvements across visuals, combat, quests, and more. Whether you're journeying through the Eastern Reach for the first time or returning to tie up loose threads, your path should now be a little smoother. But that’s not all—we have something special on the horizon. Coming later this year, Watchers will be able to help us test a brand-new feature: Turn-Based Combat. We’re excited to explore this new way to experience encounters in Pillars of Eternity, and your feedback will help shape its future. More details on how to participate will be shared in the near future, so keep an eye on our socials and in our discord. For now, read on for the full list of changes in this update—and as always, thank you for walking the path with us. —The Pillars of Eternity Team General Fixes & Platform Support Mac users may now access the latest updates and bug fixes without issue. Resolved a longstanding issue where the game would boot to a black screen on systems using Turkish and certain other non-Latin-based language settings. GOG Achievements should now unlock correctly. Kickstarter and Backer rewards on Steam and GOG are once again granted properly to new players. Steam Linux users: support is now live and will be maintained in future patches. Epic Games Store users will now properly receive their Royal Edition digital rewards. Saved games now sort by most recent activity, regardless of save type (Manual, Auto, or Quick). Visual & Audio Enhancements Characters should now reliably speak when selected—Eder has once again found his voice. Grimoires will now properly vanish from view when reading scrolls. Cutscenes and maps now perform better when viewed in 4K resolution. Fixed rare T-pose occurrences in select cutscenes. Removed unintended "knock" sounds in some dialogue nodes. Act introductions and developer commentary no longer echo unintentionally. Ferry boat in Oldsong no longer appears to be sinking. Corrected VFX alignment for multiple Woodskin spell variants, including Spell Holding and Spell Bind versions. Visual and audio effects restored for Delemgans, Adragan, Pwgra, and Menpwgra spells. Party members immune to poison will no longer complain about being poisoned. All animal companions now make proper footstep sounds. Hiravias' Spiritshift FX now play correctly upon reverting to his natural form. Taena’s VO will now trigger correctly in both instances where it can be heard. Quests & Dialogue Fixes Resolved softlocks involving Aldwyn's services, both in Brighthollow and the Salty Mast after hiring Lyrinia. Simoc in Sacrificial Bloodlines will no longer drop a duplicate quest reward if slain. Slaying the High Monk after receiving Alia Braccia will no longer grant a second copy. A Mother’s Plea now correctly fails if Ranga is killed before acquiring the potion. Abrecan will still accept the letter he requests, even if you already possess it. Krivi’s Od Nua rewards can now only be claimed once. Anamfath Leader in Twin Elms will now continue The Child of Five Suns quest even if Vincent Agosti is dead. Failing Athletics or Dexterity checks in Durgan’s Battery now properly applies the Concussion affliction. Tealdor’s Bounty can now be continued later even if you initially leave the conversation. Turning in the final pieces of the Blade of the Endless Paths while Dunstan is defending the keep now grants proper rewards. Grynde's "ripple sponge addict" accusation exploit has been fixed. Crothar’s fate no longer influences the state of Korgrak’s quest. Combat & Mechanics Fixed a crash involving the Shadow Step ability. Shadow Step is now ground-targeted and no longer treated as a modal. Spellsword Wizards will now prioritize Second Wind over Deleterious Alacrity of Motion when wounded. Party AI will no longer waste Second Wind when Endurance is low but Health is too low to benefit. Party AI will no longer target charmed/confused allies with harmful abilities. Movement commands now hold position briefly, as seen in Deadfire. (Watchers may still attack if able.) Trap Accuracy no longer double-applies the attack’s Accuracy modifier. Constant Recovery now scales properly and outperforms Veteran's Recovery, as intended. Ryona’s Buckle Tenacity Accuracy bonus now updates dynamically with Endurance changes. Iron Circle damage reduction now deactivates correctly when above 26% Endurance. Killing Bolt traps now correctly target Fortitude and no longer display slash damage. Chain Lightning traps now properly deal damage. Abydon’s Hammer will no longer cause permanent Might increases when reforged. The Lady’s Hand now uses a visible trigger for easier tracking on the character sheet. Black Sanctuary shield correctly applies endurance regen during Withdraw. Royal Deadfire Cannoneer belt no longer causes trap recursion. Eyestrike and similar effects no longer trigger on beneficial “attacks.” Powder Burns and similar modals no longer damage allies unintentionally. Fulvano’s Blunderbuss now correctly charms targets on spellchance. Knock Down now respects suppression mechanics and prevents stacking. Characters under Crushing Doom are no longer able to move while proned. Izali's Boon Stealth bonus now properly clears after resting. Scrolls of Minoletta's Bounding Missiles and Boiling Spray now match their respective spells in description and range. Scrolls of Restore Endurance now have updated ranges consistent with the spell version. Salty Mast hirelings now maintain their boons when aiding at your stronghold. Skyward Kick no longer causes bugs like vertical launch or permanent prone states when missing. Multiple Unconscious effects no longer allow movement during incapacitation. UI & Interaction Improvements Culture selection on character creation is now preserved in rare level-up cases. Double-clicking a weapon now equips it to your first weapon slot. Right-clicking creatures now opens their bestiary entries (if discovered). Retraining UI no longer shows white portrait bugs. "Best of" damage types now show correctly in the character sheet. Burial Isle vision sequences can now be properly canceled. Traps that trigger aggression now show appropriate cursor warnings when opened. Trapped chest in the Abbot's Quarter during The Rising Tide can now be looted after disarming. Queued looting actions can no longer be exploited to loot multiple times. Ancestor Pendant’s Guardian Spirit no longer displays erroneous ability info. Invalid names at the end of character creation will now prevent finalization. Attribute bonuses from culture are only displayed after culture is selected. Localization Several Talents that were previously missing translations are now fully localized across supported languages. Known Issues In rare cases, the spell cursor may show an incorrect icon. This should now happen far less frequently, but further improvements are being investigated for a future patch.

Hey folks! @Boeroer and I recorded this discussion on 5 builds he made for Deadfire. I thought y'all might be interested! https://youtu.be/nEdI3x8qxGM

My passion project sees the light of day! What can you do with it? Create builds! Export/import them! Make a build, press Summarize, then use one of the copy buttons below. Look at what abilities do! Mouse over icons on desktop; press icons on mobile/tablet. I don't have any inside info - the data is from fansites and videos - so there are some assumptions behind it that may not be correct: You get one point per level, starting at 2. There are no bonus skill points. The level cap is 25. This I'm pretty sure of, because there is no level 25 tier (which there should be if the cap were 30 or higher), but Iron Fists rank 4 requires level 25. You don't have to spend ability points as soon as you get them. You can hoard them. You can wait until you're level 20 and then learn all level 20 abilities at once. Therefore, the calculator lets you skip levels/hoard points if you turn off strict mode. As a result of these assumptions, there is a maximum of 24 points you can spend in my calculator. This may very well be wrong, so don't take it as gospel. I would love to know if you know/think differently! I have faithfully copied the data as written, other than fixing a few typos here and there, but the following are probably not correct: Rank 2 Corrosive Siphon can permastun an enemy. Freezing Pillar, Blackbow and Pull of Eora can be learned without finding them in a grimoire. These are the only spells that require Grimoire Mastery without having to be learned from a grimoire. I expect they do in fact need to be learned from a grimoire. Sniper is 25% for all ranks. Looking at other passives that are 25% at rank 1, it's probably supposed to be 25%/40%/50% or 25%/35%/40%. And now for some questions you may have about the tool... I want to make a max level build and/or not worry about build order. Turn off strict mode. I exported, but didn't get the build order I had in mind. When you play around and reduce skill levels while in strict mode, the calculator will try to keep your build intact and valid rather than force you to start over, but it cannot always figure out the order when you do this. If you want to be sure it gets the order right, start over and only increase skills to get your build. If you didn't lower any skills while building and the order still ended up wrong, do let me know. I can't increase this skill, why? You've spent all 24 points, the skill has no more ranks, you're missing a pre-requisite (Grimoire Mastery or Unbreakable), or you're in strict mode and taking the skill would cause you to skip levels. I can't lower this skill, why? It's a pre-requisite (Grimoire Mastery or Unbreakable) for a skill you still have. Get rid of that skill first. I have an issue with the calculator. What should I do? Post it here! I have a suggestion for the calculator. What should I do? Post it here! I have made a build that I want to talk about. What should I do? Post it! But not here. Give your build the space it deserves with its own thread!

So, the first game I played that was made by Obsidian was Knights of the Old Republic 2. It was to be representative of the early productions of the studio. Yes, admittedly, it was rushed, technically very flawed and was clearly lacking content that was cut to make the deadline. But it was still a gem, inserting shades of grey in the normally two-toned world of the Star Wars universe, and in doing so making the world feel that much more real and worthwhile. The characters were believable; they didn’t just exist simply to further the story, but they each had their own agenda, and they were all tied to the player character in their own unique way, as was slowly revealed throughout the story. And this is what I feel Obsidian so often manages to add to a world, whether it’s an Obsidian original, or borrowed from another’s intellectual property. They take their narratives seriously; they build their worlds to be believable and they allow their characters to live their own lives and not simply be window dressing for the main characters. I remember going through Mask of the Betrayer, the Neverwinter Nights 2 DLC, for the first time and being awed by the gravity of its story. This was a story of mythological proportions, pitting you against the laws of its universe and death itself, and in a way where you were never quite sure what exactly was the right choice to make. The ending did not offer simple black and white choices, a hallmark of the sort of Obsidian games that I hold dear, and of which I cherish fond memories. I kept following Obsidian throughout the years, and each time I would look forward with anticipation to whatever the studio would come up with next. Fallout: New Vegas was a huge success, of course. And when the studio started doing Kickstarters for their own IP, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind to throw some money their way. It did not leave me disappointed, both Pillars of Eternity games wove exactly the sort of deep narrative, rich with lore and worldbuilding, that I have come to expect from the studio. Remarkably, the studio has not lost its soul throughout the years, as exemplified by the 2022 release of Pentiment. Set in the fictional town of Tassing in historical 16th century Bavaria, this game plays like a detective story. But the catch is that actual detectiving is a fool’s errand. Whoever you end up picking as the culprit, you never have enough evidence to be certain that you have picked the right perp. Not that the powers that be mind very much; they’re happy so long as someone is seen to be executed for the crimes. You could say that the true objective of Pentiment is to unravel the underlaying plot, and to eventually confront the real thread spinner that has immersed the quiet town of Tassing in a state of chaos. But I don’t think that’s quite right. For me, the real objective of the game is to, if only for a moment, make it possible for you to transport yourself to a different time and a different place, and to contemplate what life was like for people in those days, and what kind of choices they were confronted with as the last vestiges of the old were being blown away by the winds of modernity. And now, it will not be long before their next much anticipated game will come out. I will be honest, when I first heard of the studio working on what was then still considered to be the studio’s answer to Skyrim, I was sceptical. It seemed like they might be biting off more than they could chew, and I felt the sort of formula behind Skyrim didn’t seem to play to the studio's strength. But now that I’ve seen the first previews, I’m glad to see that it’s actually nothing like Skyrim. It seems smaller in scope, less focused on a large open world, and actually aiming more for a smaller, more intimate experience. A lot has been made about the combat, and luckily the latest news seems to be that there’s been a lot of improvements on that front. But what I find more interesting is that once again Avowed looks to have characters with their own voices and their own agendas. And once again there seems to be a rich story with plenty of mysteries to unravel. I honestly can’t wait, and I’ve always taken the week after the release free from work, so I can fully enjoy it without any distractions. I’m sure I’ll have a great time.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/804 This should fix the bug described here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/bugs-and-oddities As I've understood it, this has been a pain point ever since patch 5.0 for many Credit to @ShadyDax for nudging me to check this bug out Note that this does not fix potions added by mods (I'm gonna have to patch Potion of Enlightenment later ) Going to sleep now

Greetings Envoys, We want to take a moment to thank you for your continued reports, feedback, and suggestions. Your insights are valuable to us, and we appreciate the time and effort you put into sharing your experiences with us. Our team is committed to ongoing support, and we’re always looking for ways to improve. Your input is key to help us refine and expand Avowed, and we are excited to keep rolling out updates. Within the next few weeks, we are going to be releasing a roadmap that will go over some of the plans we have that will be coming to the game over the upcoming year, so keep your eyes peeled! Thank you for being part of our community—we appreciate your support and look forward to sharing more with you in the future! — The Avowed Team Community Requested Features The player will now receive an additional talent point at levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Players with save files past those levels will receive the additional points. High Contrast Documents: New option increases font size and applies bold styling to all documents, tutorials, in-game pop-ups, and the ledger's quest tab. Walk Toggle: Players using mouse and keyboard can now toggle between walking and running. HUD Customization: HUD Toggle Keybind: A new keybind (default: Backslash) hides all HUD elements for cleaner screenshots. HUD Opacity Slider: Adjust the transparency of the HUD to your preference. Camera & Compass Options: Third-Person FOV Slider: Added to Graphics Settings. Static Compass Option: Players can now lock the compass to always point North instead of rotating. Controller & Input Improvements: Full support for customizing controller keybinds. Crashes & Major Issues Game Stability Fixes: Fixed a rare crash when switching music during level transitions. Xbox App (PC) Launch Crash Fixed: No longer crashes with error 0xc0000005. Fixed a save data issue causing crashes related to encounter spawning enemies with save/loading. Resolved a Fast Travel crash that could sometimes occur. Addressed a rare crash affecting ROG Ally and Intel-integrated laptops. Main menu frame rate is now capped to prevent crashes and hardware issues. Quests & Dialogues Quest Progression Fixes: The "Quest Available" icon for Ranger Verano no longer appears after the quest becomes inaccessible. "The Finer Things in Battle" quest now triggers reliably and will retroactively complete for players who already met its requirements. Attacking the xaurips in Dehengen’s cabin before the "Find Her Cabin" objective now properly progresses the quest. "Our Dreams Divide Us Still" – Combat at Mount Forja now consistently ends to advance the quest. "Dawntreader" quest fix: Now properly turn-inable to Ofryc even if Kai and Marius are not in the party. "Elder Offerings" quest fix: Now properly resolves if the player both paid for the stolen food and returned it. "Boundaries of Antiquity" quest fix: Prevented an issue where players could skip a required conversation. "An Untimely End." - Ygwulf and the rebels no longer become hostile after sparing him. NPC & Conversation Adjustments: Fixed Adelarro and opponents failing to appear if Dreamthralls were killed before starting a side quest. Amalia will now always give you the key to her camp’s chest when speaking with her. Constable Hajime now correctly rewards players for bounties even if "Heart of Valor" isn’t completed. Marius’s Training Offer: His training offer is now more accessible in conversations. Conversations will no longer drop unexpectedly if enemies detect the player while in dialogue. Restartable Dialogues: Players can now restart conversations with: The illusion in the "Face Your Fears" quest (Shatterscarp). Runyd the watcher if dialogue ended prematurely. Ranger Casagrada in "Steel Resolve" after progressing past "Ancient Soil." Systems & Gameplay Improvements Combat & Enemy Behavior: Arrow Decals Improved: More visible in XSX Performance mode for "The Wasteland Courier" quest. Pistols now hit targets more reliably. Companions with the Shocked status effect no longer electrocute the player when nearby. Enemies react more reliably to arrows impacts. Ranged enemies are less confused when the player moves in and out of cover. Spells & Abilities: Essence cost reductions now properly apply and no longer prevent spellcasting. Fixed cases where totem effects would stop working after conversations or cutscenes. "Into the Fray" ability can now be canceled into other actions sooner, improving combo potential. Quest & Loot Fixes: Fast Travel is now disabled during certain animations to prevent getting stuck when quest items are consumed before progression. If Old Nuna was defeated but the bounty quest didn’t progress, returning to the location now correctly updates the quest. If Belderreno was defeated but no bounty trophy was received, players can now revisit the bounty location to find the trophy. Loot in the Yellowband area no longer falls into the environment, preventing collection issues. Controls & Performance: Mouse 4/5 buttons can now be bound to actions. Optimized elemental accumulation effects for better performance. Optimized the Tebaru Sanakis spirit visuals to improve performance. Reducing VO volume now also reduces reverb/echo for characters. Upscaling no longer defaults to DLSS every time the game is launched. Collision & Environmental Fixes: Adjusted Eothasian temple collision to prevent going out of bounds. Doors at Naku Tedek now correctly unseal when reloading a save if combat was already completed. Fixed rock collision near the Strangled Adra in Dawnshore. Wall textures in Emerald Stair Pargrunen Cache now render properly. Bug Fixes & Miscellaneous General Stability & Fixes: Resolved issues with respawning enemies, such as the Sporeking reappearing after being killed. Fixed unkillable Dreamthralls outside of Thirdborn. Fixed an issue where Ryngrim's rotating wheel would shift when the game was out of focus. UI & Localization Fixes: Gjeda’s Journal no longer contains duplicate entries when playing in French. The description for the food item Saucco now displays correctly in all languages. Medical Supplies quest item now has the correct icon. Navigation & World Interactions: The player can no longer become stuck in the Cistern after dying in combat with Ygwulf. Sliding under obstacles now works properly. The player can now properly talk to Ambassador Hylgard, and others if combat previously interrupted a quest-related conversation. Sargamis no longer gets stuck when walking toward the lever in Eothasian Temple. Even more fixes and Improvements! We had so many fixes in this patch, that we ran over the character limit for some of our platform's patch note features. So, here are even more fixes that went into 1.3. Content Fixes NOTE: This content section is full of story spoilers! Readers beware! Global Changes Adjusted collision on all winch assets to improve performance. Centered the UI indicator on each illusory object. Character creation options now have consistent translations in Polish. Marius's offer to train the player is now more easily accessible through conversation. The Ledger's Documents tab no longer displays debug text on the header for Lore while playing in French. Tuned variables for tracking the player's influence on The Voice to improve reactivity. Fort Northreach: Cleaned up rocks and sand assets to blend together better. Fixed multiple issues in Polish translation of documents at Fort Northreach. Improved camera framing in the conversation with Steadman Ralke at Fort Northreach. Removed parkour from certain rock formations around Fort Northreach to prevent players from accidentally getting out of bounds and falling through the world. Updated settings on rocks in the ocean to prevent players from getting stuck out of bounds. Dawnshore Added ambience SFX to a room that was missing it in Dawnshore. Addressed rendering issues on various props used in Dawnshore, including wicker baskets, window frames and glass, cobwebs, hanging water plants, book piles, swinging trap logs, beige curtains, red curtains, iron curtain rods, and bougainvillea plants. Adjusted camera framing in conversation with Dagherda in Dawnshore. Bright flash of light no longer appears in cutscene during the quest "Dawntreader". Changed collision settings in Eothasian temple to prevent players from going out of bounds. Dream conversations in Dawnshore now use the correct gendered variants when referring to the Envoy while playing in Polish. Glaedwine and Leoflaed no longer repeat their quest turn in dialog for "Escape Plan". Grysca will now enter his standing animation more reliably. If the player turns in the Luminous Adra to Sapiento de Falva as part of the quest "Precious Light", the player can no longer turn in the adra to Captain Evina Bardatto as well. Improved performance for lighting and raytracing in the Ruinous Cavern in Dawnshore. Reduced light and fog leaking in Runyd's house in Dawnshore. Reduced shadow noise in the first room of the Cistern when playing on XSX Performance mode. Removed gaps in Dawnshore's Shantytown that let players go into unintended areas. The action "Store Items" in Party Stash now uses the correct translation in Polish. The conversation with Tycg in the Aedyran Embassy in Dawnshore will no longer end unexpectedly. The hanging cloth drapes in Dawnshore's Shantytown bar now render in their intended color. The player can no longer fall and get stuck between buildings in the Militia Barracks in Paradis. The player can no longer reach an unintended area behind sewer grates in Dawnshore's Cistern. The player can no longer reach an unintended area near the God Shrine in Dawnshore. The player can no longer reach unintended areas inside buildings in Northern Paradis. The quest "Precious Light" will now use correct quest markers if the player kills without meeting Sapiento de Falva first. The Voice now correctly acknowledges the Player's pronouns during their conversation in The Beyond while playing in Polish. Updated one of Captain Soldis's lines to use the correct formatting and syntax. Ygwulf and the rebels no longer become hostile after in "An Untimely End". Emerald Stair "Quest available" icon for Ranger Verano no longer displays after the quest becomes inaccessible. Adelarro is now using the proper voiceover file during some of his lines. Bounty quests with a singular target will now update upon killing the target instead of having to defeat all the enemies in the encounter. Corrected the description for Death Knight Armor's "Bastion" enchantment in Polish. Corrected the loot list for a chest outside of Naku Tedek that would sometimes have no loot in it. Enemies outside of the Delemgan Queen's chamber will now remain hostile if the player enters combat with her. If the player defeated Old Nuna and collected the bounty trophy but the quest did not progress, they can now return to the bounty location and the quest will update. Improved lighting performance for mushrooms outside of Naku Tedek. SFX of electrified water in Naku Tedek will no longer play after the trap causing it has been disabled. The conversation with Lieutenant Fidelio will no longer end unexpectedly if the player receives the quest "Missing Rangers" from Belenna and speaks with him before finding Adelarro. The name for Fast Travel Beacons now accurately convey their purpose and meaning in Polish. The player can no longer turn in the quest "Nature vs. Nurture" infinitely to Amadio. The player is now able to talk to Ranger Casagrada as part of the quest "Steel Resolve" if the player has progressed past a certain point of the quest "Ancient Soil". Updated syntax for Death Knight Armor's description to display the correct health values. Shatterscarp Added the correct SFX to a lever in the Sand Sea Ruins in Shatterscarp. Camera now correctly centers on the Envoy when certain characters state their opinion about trying drugs. Choosing specific dialogue options when talking to the survivalists near the Ancient Lakebed in Shatterscarp no longer causes the conversation to infinitely loop. Cutscenes that occur during the quest "Shadows of the Past" now have controller vibration haptics. Giatta now uses the correct voiceover file for one of her in-combat remarks. If the player made choices that lead to Chiko's death, they will no longer appear and be alive during the quest Optimized raytracing near the Naku Kubel Approach in Shatterscarp. Overworld changes that occur after certain choices are made during the quest "Shadows of the Past" will no longer appear earlier than intended. Players can no longer get stuck in an unintended area in Shatterscarp's Shrine to Wael. Rotating wheels in Ryngrim's Domain now have the correct SFX. The audio for the sea shanty singers in Thirdborn is now removed if the singers are not present. The conversation with Nameho and Tamamu no longer ends prematurely if the player already completed specific objectives in the quest "Home Sweet Home" before speaking to them for the first time. The NPC Koda in Shatterscarp now has the proper voiceover files for some of his lines. The player can no longer get stuck inside the cliffside rocks near the Sand Sea Ruins in Shatterscarp. The player can no longer reach an unintended area near Aiko's Campsite in Shatterscarp. The player can no longer reach an unintended area near the Pargrun Cache in Shatterscarp. The player can now properly receive their reward if they patiently wait for the guard who has to pee in Thirdborn. Updated Ruanga's character model to resolve continuity errors during the quest "One Last Drink." Galawain’s Tusks Added a conditional to prevent players from talking with a specific NPC about the outcome of the quest Keep History Alive if they have not completed it yet. Added ambient crowd noises to NPC crowds in Solace Keep. Amalia will no longer fail to give you a key to her camp's chest after speaking with her in her camp. Players that have previously run into this problem will receive the key when entering Galawain's Tusks or after loading a save game in Galawain's Tusks. An NPC will no longer walk into the conversation space when talking to Warden Radut in Galawain's Tusks. Fog no longer leaks through the walls of Solace Lava Tubes when playing with Shadow Quality set to Medium. Improved lighting performance in the Southern Warden Tower in Galawain's Tusks. Prevented Councilor Kostya from saying a line of dialogue that should only play for a specific outcome in "Ancient Soil". The conversation with Renato in Galawain's Tusks will no longer trigger earlier than intended. The quest "Boundaries of Antiquity" will now properly complete if the player purified the water after Weeping Willow will now fight back when the player chooses at the end of "Boundaries of Antiquity". Endgame Regions Adjusted camera framing in conversations during the quest Adjusted text positions on the map during the quest Companions will no longer become stuck behind locked doors in The Garden. Corrected formatting of Polish translations during the final region of the game. Improved transition into the ending cutscenes and end slides of the game. The examinable can now be found in The Garden. The player can no longer access a conversation in Galawain's Tusks with Iancu meant for another area of the game. The player will no longer get stuck in an unintended area when jumping off a cliff in The Garden. The player will no longer get stuck in the environment in certain areas during the quest Updated fog in The Garden so that cloud VFX from abilities such as Blizzard and Returning Storm will properly render. UI fixes and Improvements A "new item" indicator will now appear subcategories in the ledger to help guide players to the entries they have not read yet. Added a "Next Tip" prompt for loading screens. Added a visual indicator for progress when uploading saves to Xbox Cloud. Adra Shard now uses the intended item icon. An inventory count for adra will now be displayed when viewing it in a store. Buff icons from Food no longer appear cut off if the player has several buffs active at once. Changing subtitle size will now update immediately if the player is in a conversation. Changing the game's Language in Settings no longer requires the "Apply" prompt to be selected twice. Companion abilities will no longer auto-bind to slots which have already been bound by the player. Disabled the ability to open the ledger when the player is dead or incapacitated briefly during Second Wind. Full-screen tutorials now display properly during a new game, even if they had been seen in a previous save. In the rare event of loading an incompatible save, the Main Menu's Continue button will now display a warning. Marius' abilities now have the correct respec cost. Mouse 4/5 buttons can now be bound to actions. Remove allowance of Emojis during name creation for Xbox. Removed the "removed from inventory" prompt every time the player uses a throwable. Shopkeepers will no longer get rid of items you have sold to them. The description for the food item Saucco now has the correct string in all languages. The HUD will no longer persist when leaving or entering a Party Camp. The input for canceling the throw of a grenade will now properly update to the correct input if the player changed rebound "Interact". The player can no longer continuously spend money on respecing companion points without actually allocating any. The player now retains temporary status effects/buffs from consumables when entering another map. The player will no longer become stuck in a blocking state after opening the Action Radial while blocking. The quest item Medical Supplies now uses the correct item icon. The setting "Use Xbox Saves" is now hidden when playing on an Xbox or via the Xbox app on PC, as using Xbox Saves is always required on these platforms. The text for equipping a weapon from the inventory is no longer cut off when playing with different Text Size settings. Updated Radial Menu for keyboard to use non-customizable keys 1 - 6 keys for binding abilities to the quick action bar. This is to prevent conflicting inputs from happening. Updated text formatting for the descriptions of game difficulty options. Upscaling no longer defaults to DLSS every time the game is launched. Using ESC will now return the player to the previous page in in the Action Radial instead of always closing it. Gameplay Fixes, Improvements, and Balancing A skeleton warrior in Ryngrim's Domain now notices the player if they get shot by the player while reanimating. Added an error message when attempting to save the game during a cutscene. Adra and Awakened Adra's item descriptions no longer claim that players can break these items down into even more Adra. After killing fire blights, their bodies fall inertly to the ground instead of remaining in the air. An item pickup sound now plays when the player acquires an item during a conversation. Attacks from pistols now hit the target more reliably. Captain Evina Bardatto now drops some equipment in addition to money. Clarified that Kithwarder's enchant bonus/penalty applies to Damage Reduction. Boosted Kithwarder's bonus against kith back to 10% (up from 3%). Combat music in the Lava Tubes at Solace Keep now updates correctly when the player stealth attacks an enemy without killing them. Companion's abilities now correctly scale with the tier system Companions no longer play stealth barks when the player is sliding. Companions no longer receive elemental accumulation while incapacitated. Companions with the Shocked status effect no longer electrocute the player when standing near them. Conner Tranton will now always drop his unique boots. Corrected animations seen in third person while the player is idle, running, or sprinting while holding different weapons. Crowd NPCs in Solace Keep will no longer teleport to the center of the world in front of the player. Dawnshore Merchants now stock anywhere between 3-5 lockpicks at a time in their shops, increased from the previous amount of 1-3. Emerald Stair's exploration music now continues to play when loading saves in Naku Tedek and exiting to the overlands. Enemies no longer teleport to Yatzli while she's actively teleporting to a new location in combat. Enemies will no longer get stuck doing nothing after being hit with a knockback attack. Enemy health bars will no longer disappear after the player becomes incapacitated in combat. Essence cost reductions now apply consistently, instead of blocking the player from casting spells despite having sufficient Essence. Fire Blights can now attack players that are currently blocking with a shield while targeting the creature. Ghost summons Huginn and Muninn sound more like ghastly spirits and less like living people. Ghosts' Stamina Drain aura no longer remains after they die. God Shrine Totems at Party Camp now have a green smoky effect if their buff is currently active. Godless chests can now spawn firearms again. This also allows the player to find unique firearms such as Magic Mistol in their intended location. Ice platforms and shock hazards should no longer spawn in midair when using elemental melee weapons over shallow water. If the player falls off a cliff during the second trial in Naku Kubel, they will proceed to die instead of activating Second Wind. If the player performs a Wand Special Attack on an enemy after knocking back and stunning them with Grimoire Snap, Wand Special Attack VFX now properly displays under the enemy. Improved performance for summoned creatures that receive damage over time or disappear on death. Increased Young Bears' resistance to the impact of Power Attacks from Bows, making them less likely to become stunned too often. Into the Fray can now be cancelled into other actions earlier, to create more follow-up/combo possibilities. Lowered the stun threshold on Delemgan Summoners. can no longer get stunned when transitioning between combat phases, and her stun meter now resets upon being healed after transitioning. Lödwyn's sword now uses the correct appearance during her entrance cutscene in Dawnshore. Maegfolc no longer get launched unintentionally high in the air when ragdolled by Pull of Eora Marius's Hunter's Sense ability will now highlight loot from defeated enemies. Offhand one-handed Axes now play the correct Power Attack animations while in playing in third-person. Optimized Amadio's ally buffing abilities to increase performance. Players can now use any ranged weapon to target Magran's Fury Stalks, Eye of Rymrgand Nests, Electric Carnivorous Lilies, Ivy of Forgotten Souls, and Essence Generators. This will allow Wand projectiles to target and home in on them. Players on Story Time difficulty are now twice as resistant to the impact of incoming attacks, making it harder to interrupt the player when they perform actions in combat. Players on Story Time difficulty will now slowly regenerate up to 50% of their maximum Health and Essence while out of combat. Power Slide now affects all enemies except for Maegfolc. Increased the impact of Power Slide Rank 2. Prevented an error that would cause enemies to respawn after they have died. Many enemies that respawned incorrectly due to this issue should be dead when loading an affected save. Prevented auto-saving from occurring when the player is not in a safe position Quality of life improvements to the firearm reloading system. Quest titles no longer linger on the HUD even after being completed. Rank 2 of Returning Storm now correctly displays the duration of the ability in its description. Reduced all Adra costs for upgrading equipment by 1. Reducing VO volume now also reduces the reverb/echo from characters, making them inaudible when setting VO volume to 0. Removed exploit that allowed players to skip summoned character cooldowns by unequipping the item that grants the summon ability Removed the cube that appeared after interacting with certain merchants Resolved inconsistencies in targeting powder kegs and other objects. Second Wind now has no cooldown on Story Time difficulty. Small Spiders, Small Beetles, and Extra Small Beetles no longer have collision during their death animations. The "Press Any Button" prompt now plays a UI sound effect when the player interacts with it. The Disappointer's enchantment "Shared Misery" now correctly applies the debuff to surrounding enemies and no longer stacks multiple times on the same enemy. The Grimoire dry firing animation no longer plays if the player tries to cast a grimoire spell immediately after switching to that grimoire. It now only plays when trying to cast a grimoire spell on cooldown or if the player has insufficient essence. The player can no longer damage a Damaged Maegfolc by hitting where its missing arm would be. The player will now receive an additional talent point at levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Players with save files past those levels will receive the additional points. The reticle now accurately indicates whether or not Izmalt's Meteoric Apparatus will hit an enemy when the player aims it at them. The Sporeking will no longer respawn if the player already killed it. The underwater audio filter now properly updates when moving the camera above or underwater in Third-Person. The Yellowbands no longer respawn after the player completes their bounty quest. Updated Destul's health bar to correctly display the creature's name. Upgrading Grimoire Mastery no longer reduces the essence cost of spells cast with Grimoires. Upgrading weapons on Hard and Path of the Damned will now require more upgrade materials: Hard: +1 Plant Materials per upgrade, +1 Adra Materials per tier upgrade, Path of the Damned: +2 Plant Materials per upgrade, +2 Plant Materials per tier upgrade Using an ability right after the ability cooldown wears off will always be successful. Wand attacks now properly home towards targets standing in water. Water Beetles' projectiles now properly home towards targets if the beetles attack them while standing in water. When changing Difficulty settings, the player's health and essence now correctly update relative to the newly chosen difficulty. When loading any save data, gamepad vibration now remains turned on if the player already had it enabled. When playing on the difficulty Path of the Damned, enemies now have +20% bonus attack speed. Wildwalker Gloves now have a cooldown, preventing NPCs from getting indefinitely rooted in place by its effects. Xaurips in Fort Northreach will now react to the player shooting down Magran's Fury and killing a xaurip. Yatzli no longer stops following the player while exploring the Abandoned Mine in Shatterscarp. Ygwulf no longer gets stuck in a loop if his target disappears when he teleports at the start of combat. Animation Improvements Adjusted animations of Hasui during the quest "First Contact with the Enemy". Adjusted animations of Iwao during conversation. Adjusted animations of NPCs mouths, emotions, and gestures when talking outside of conversations. Adjusted facial animations in conversation on Lynna in Dawnshore. Eilara's Grimoire no longer has blank pages. Enemies will no longer have their weapon grow in size if they were attacked while a certain animation was being used. Giatta will no longer have an abnormal snapping animation in conversations during the quest Improved animations of the last character encountered during the quest Improved lipsync for Yatzli's recruitment conversation in Thirdborn. Improved lipsync of Hylgard when talking to him during the quest Improved lipsync of Kai when talking to him in Emerald Stair about Improved lipsync of Ranhyr during the quest Lödwyn will no longer disappear after certain cutscenes during the quest "Shadows of the Past". Miscellaneous A facial hair option the player can choose for their Envoy no longer stretches abnormally during cutscenes. Adjusted Fog and lighting in shanty town. Adjusted some godlike features to not clip with the player's head. Adjusted some hairstyles to not clip with the player's head. Blocking with a weapon now uses the correct SFX when playing in first-person. Corrected clothing materials on Merchant Alonya's outfit. Dreamthrall Bears no longer pop in textures when viewed from afar. Enabled Ray Tracing for character hair to improve the appearance of character shadows. Fix visuals in terrain around Lake Lacuna. For windows platform, it now sets the default graphics upscaling value to an upscaling that is supported by the computer it is running on. Improved the heat warping effect of air above lava. In Ryngrim's Domain, the rotating wheel behind Ryngrim no longer changes position when game is out of focus. Modified rendering of background assets in the Garden to improve performance. NPCs in Naku Tedek now have the proper arm appearances. Optimized certain lights in the Garden to improve performance. Optimized Ice Wand AOE visual effects to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on Clear Out to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on Fan of Flames to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on Jolting Touch to improve performance on higher FPS modes. Optimized the visual effects on Spirit Lance to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on the weapon 'Emerald Splitter' to improve performance. Returning Storm rank 3, now consistently displays it's visual effects. Summoned Earth Blights now more consistently display their visual effects. The Aurochs-Skin Grimoire now includes the proper sigils on its pages. The screen no longer flickers and stretches when charging an attack with ranged weapons. Yatzli's voiceover no longer abruptly cuts off during a conversation with her in The Garden.

Thank you, sir. I'm ok. They mostly hit military targets but yeah, it was scary. It's over now. Let's hope it stays this way.

I've been talking/begging about this since 2016, even added it as a begging section to my gamefaqs guide. I will literally re-install PoE1 just to take a look at this. With the last patch in 2024 I promised a hand-written letter of effusive praise if the devs got around to fixing this as well, and now I have it on this week's todo list to go out and buy some stationary. thankyousomuchomg

LOL

I started playing Disco Elysium. I put on most of my clothes. Reached for my tie which was on a ceiling fan, then had a heart attack and died and went to the game over screen. That counts as completing a playthrough right?

From the trade show last month. Bad lighting in the hall. As an architect I feel offended by how bad the lighting was. Even worse attendance. Complete waste of money.

Hey everyone. Hope y'all are doing well! We're in Jamestown New York for a family function. We're picking up Bri from the airport in a few hours. I dislike New York mostly but it's nice around here. We drove up from Texas which was pretty miserable this time of year. After this it's back to cheese land for a while.

One of the primary reasons I continue to be drawn to Obsidian Entertainment, reaching back to the days of Black Isle, has been its commitment to great storytelling. This has been a quality that I believe has and continues to set it apart in the creative venture to tells stories through the gaming medium. I would like to delve into their artistic storytelling by highlighting just three examples that display their unique approach to narrative design. For me, I was hooked by their stories back in 1990s. When I discovered the stylised ‘isometric’ game of Fallout. It illustrated to me the importance to establish a foundation for narrative depth and complexity. In these early days, I believe Fallout telegraphed this hallmark of Obsidian's later works. The game's post-apocalyptic setting, moral dilemmas, and branching storylines captured my attention to the extent that much sleep was lost and it set my expectation quite high for storytelling in video games. And it all began with a water chip … Though the post-apocalyptic genre has always captured my geeky imagination, it has always been the fantasy medium to which I have been drawn. Some of the first books I dove into, as I discovered the power of the written words, were Tolkien’s and the vastness of Middle Earth. As I shared this passion with so many, Obsidian’s first foray into the genre, particularly through Gary Gygax’ D&D worlds, from Icewind Dale to Neverwinter nights, was amazing, but Obsidian’s ability to create its own IP was when they went to the next level. For me, the evolution of Obsidian has been their ability to create immersive worlds that come alive in dynamic ways. At the launch of the first Kickstarter for Pillars of Eternity, I knew that something amazing was happening in the maturation of the company’s ability to weave tales. The dedication to illustrating rich and detailed environments had me lost for hours. The world of Eora, which I believe will be further expanded in Avowed, exposed me to a living, breathing world with its own history, cultures, and conflicts. The depth of the lore and the complexity of the characters means my choices unfolded in meaningful and engaging ways. Beyond just the first title in the franchise, with Deadfire it was clear to me that my choices had consequences. This is a recurring theme in Obsidian's games, where my agency as a player is paramount. The storylines are often not linear path, but they present multiple divergent paths that lead to different outcomes. This approach not only offers opportunity to replay (if one had the time!) but it allowed me to feel like I was the agent helping the story unfold. Deadfire’s narrative, as an example of Obsidian’s narrative commitments, was further enriched by its well-written dialogue and memorable characters. The last example that I will touch on in this blog is the storytelling that shines in The Outer Worlds. If Fallout was post-apocalyptic, this recent addition to their creative library involves a journey through a dystopic future where the rich and autocratic corporations’ rule and individual freedom is intentionally oppressed. The story unfolds with satire on capitalistic greed. The satire presents a story that unfolds with a nimble wit and dark humour, which I believe is an essential component of Obsidian’s taletelling. As with their other stories, I felt I could become the Stranger. The character offered me a blank slate that allowed me to become the Stranger as I realised my choices would affect the fate of entire colonies, need alone my companions in dramatic ways. The writing is clever and thought-provoking, with plenty of twists and turns that kept me up much too late far too often! Let me conclude this musing, by focusing on Parvati’s Companion Quest. This component of Obsidian’s storytelling is what hooks me every time. Their ability to weave storytelling to liberate the player to see more widely through an artistic medium allows me to commit to the outcome of the story. Parvati’s relationship with Junlei is rich, human, and inspires me to see outside of the box. It allowed me to feel like I was hanging out with Kaylee from Firefly, recognising that in this dystopic future, love endures. The human connexion and emotion this questline evokes are profound, standing as a powerful challenge to the very real-life struggles we face outside the immersion of great gameplay. If a creative story can stir our hearts and show us options that translate into how we might aspire to be better human beings to one another, then those are the games I will passionately continue to play. And that is the true power of storytelling that I continue to experience from Obsidian after over twenty-years of my relationship with them.

That's a big negative for me. None of Bethesda's games needed bigger maps, they needed more variety in what's already there.

What I did today: Tried to figure out why I didn't have no internets. What my cat did today: Disconnect the network cable.

I just got done changing the front brakes for my neighbor a few door down. Man I love it when theres no stuck or rusted bolts and everything goes smoothly. My charge for services rendered is a large garbage pizza that she has to eat with me while we garage drink.

I got a free copy of the new Hexen+Heretic release since I owned both Hexen and Heretic on my Steam library. Trying it out now. Also, thank you Bethesda! I don't care if you ruined the Fallout franchise so long as you give me free stuff.

NWN2 Enhanced Edition comes out tomorrow, so I decided to pick it up on GOG. I'm pretty excited to play it after so long. It doesn't look like they've done much graphically, but it was a decent looking game back in the day, so it should be fine.

Was watching some videos re: Trump/stripping naturalized US citizenship etc. I am a naturalized US citizen, since I was adopted in early 1971. I think they altered some laws 20-30 years ago where adoptees can be US citizens without actual naturalization process, but only applies to those adopted post-early 1980's, with certain requirements etc, or something. I don't know details on that. Anyway, while watching it occurred to me I should go doublecheck all my adoption/citizen paperwork/records, because moving a few years ago is chaotic + my memory/organization gets worse every year. Looked in file cabinet, closets, looked in some boxes (still packed re: moving homes), couldn't find them, started to panic. Then remember the "mom" box. I had put them in there. Phew. New safer place for those again. Hopefully, since I'm almost invisible to everyone but the DMV/taxman (haha), as long as I don't try to become a drug kingpin or accrue 1000 parking tickets in a few months, Trump won't notice me.* *Not really worried about my personal status/self, mind. Not what he's (currently) chasing after. But it's Trump - and things are crazy. I think I won't leave the US for vacation/anything for a while. Trump might not let me back in.

I just hope @Katphood is okay

Donald Trump now has the opportunity to do the funniest thing: deport Musk back to South Africa.

Solasta - I owned this on Steam and never got very far. I'd make a party, and then re-think my choices, and start again. I did this a half dozen times. So basically I had 20 hours of making characters. I decided to try again, but I wanted the DLC classes, so I bought the Lightbrimger Edition on GoG, as it was on sale for a good price. I managed to push past the first mission and now I'm starting to get into the rhythm. Hopefully it lasts.

Went to the theater for A MINECRAFT MOVIE, because my nephew really wanted to go. So far I thought watching him play Minecraft was the worst thing. Then he started to watch Minecraft YouTubers, and I thought, wow, it can't get any worse. Oh how wrong I was. The best moment of the film came from an older woman a few seats away, having been dragged to the theater by what was probably her grandchild. When the credits rolled, she very loudly exclaimed: THANK GOD IT IS OVER.

[banter voice="Kana_Rua"] Hellooo! Hello? [/banter]

I completed Pillars of Eternity a couple of days ago. I had such a good time, I haven't played an old school RPG for a couple of years despite it being my favorite genre and Obsidian made an absolute banger here. It had a really good story, and not having the curtain pulled back until the very end made all the reveals very impactful. I was planning to play something that's totally different between Pillars 1 & 2 so I didn't get bored with the real-time and pause genre but after the last couple of hours of PoE1 I just have to know what happens next now so I've started playing Deadfire immediately. I've basically just started, I'm about to repair the ship and leave the first island. It was a bit jarring for the first hour or so with the new UI and going from a typical medieval setting to a swashbuckling pirate adventure but it's already obvious that the quality of the writing and RPG mechanics are so much improved here. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the rest of the game.

Here's the trailer for Solasta II. I'm stoked for this game

Hello friends! Here are the patch notes for Hotfix 0.1.2.1 Resolved an issue that caused players to crash when the Founders Pack equipped. Addressed an issue that should fix AI pathing behavior. Due to an unintended issue - The ORC bee by the blueberry bush should now move back to their intended location. Various stability enhancements have been made, including improvements to the process of sending your buggy home. Hopefully this will help players progress through the story. We are continuing to work on the existing issues in the game as well as any new reports that come in. Please feel free to submit a support ticket if you run into any issue with the game. Obsidian Support Thanks!

please make pillars of eternity 3 start kickstarter maybe? -Anıl Erdem Sarak

I jumped on my bike and kept going until I ran out of road and had to circle back. Before and after I ran out of city. + an obligatory instagram shot of the cold beer i thought i deserved for my troubles.

oh man, it was a bit of a journey trying to decipher posts and notes I wrote nine (!!) years ago, but i can confirm that the trap accuracy bug is in fact fixed. it feels so good to get this fixed, almost a bit in disbelief that it finally happened - i have an entire section of my old gamefaqs guide that i need to delete. as promised, a hand-written letter is on its way to the irvine offices. thanks so much

So, I, like, never having played Kingdom Come: Unwoked Incline, just went and looked up Theresa, because @BruceVC has kept mentioning her for a while now. I had certain expectations going into this image search, mostly because the aforementioned poster said that Veilguard did not cater enough to the horny incel core audience of these games. Now, to make this comparison properly, here's one of these character models from Veilguard that doesn't cater to the horny incel core audience. Probably because of her rack size, but that I do not know for sure, because said poster refused to actually tell what it was about that game that made it unappealing for horny incels. This is Neve in her civilian attire, i.e. in non-combat locations. Take not of the lack of anime style giant boobies. Now, before looking up Theresa, here's what I thought I would get: That's how Neve should look, I guess, to make the incels happy? And this is Theresa, apparently. At least according to a quick googling. Imagine my surprise when Theresa turned out to be a plain country bumpkin, completely unremarkable. Normal, one might say. Certainly less catered to horny incels than Neve was. This is so confusing.

Just completed my Ultimate run today! What a journey. I used an SC Bloodmage. If anyone is curious here's a link to my playlist-- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAm0AdL2JprBmLIvnUJQa_8nGDaN3QPxR Thanks to ValkyOfApocrypha for his route, that was such an invaluable resource in figuring this out.

I really love this board. Almost every day, I learn something new. Today, I have learned, that Bethesda has employees, who test their games for bugs. Who would have thought, that this is reality in this Universe

I kinda feel now how Romans were when Caligula made his horse a senator.

@ShadySands Happy Birthday my brother! We are older, grayer, and likely heavier than we were. But we carried the legacy in our time! More than that no one could ask!

This is a story about sacrifice. It is also a story about nostalgia, but more than anything, it is a story about the sacrifices gamers make. We travel back to a time of low pixel count and greenish screens – specifically the summer of 1992. The radio that summer would blast SNAP! Rythm Is a Dancer and my cousin and I, shortly before our 13th birthdays, were in summer camp on the German island of Norderney. In the evening, after lights out, with eight kids per tent, obviously nobody slept. In our tent we did two things. Firstly, one of the boys had brought terrible horror novellas, and we read those. Over thirty years later I still have nightmares. Mostly because the story did not make sense – you can’t hide a whole labyrinth inside the walls of a bell tower! The second thing was eating chocolate and other sweets. And this is where this becomes a story of sacrifice. You see, the eating was predominantly done by the other six. The two of us would initiate it, but then we’d spend the night selling our stash to the others in the tent. In retrospect, we should have found a way to expand business to the other tents, but we were not even thirteen. There was a reason to this, which had little to do with entrepreneurial spirit. The camp organizers had permitted each kid a 50DM allowance per week for the two weeks of camp. Incidentally, as my cousin pointed out, 50DM was roughly the price of a new Game Boy game. Not eating chocolate but watching others enjoy my stash was not a choice. It was a sacrifice that only gamers will understand: others would eat so I could game. Everything went well. Until the very last day. It was hot. We were on our last excursion in town, killing time until we had to get the ferry. In the (heat of the) moment we decided to grab an ice cream. The worst 3,50 I ever spent. Also, one of the worst ice creams I ever had and most likely the reason why I still do not eat lemon ice cream. It almost put me off lemonade as well. An hour before we left, I dropped to 46,50. One, horrible tasting lemon ice cream was the reason I couldn’t pay for Gargoyle’s Quest solely through the chocolate black market. Mind, the entire process did turn Gargoyle’s Quest into one of my favourite games, even though it wasn’t really my thing – too dark in tone, too much jumping around spikes. In the end, the cool green daemon on the box cover turned out to be red! That was an unexpected plot twist. It highlighted something though about descriptions and plot relevance: how often do authors abuse the fact that in written format you do not have information until they give it to you? In comics, movies, and games, you see things from the start. Unless it is a greenish Game Boy screen and after hours and hours some NPC tells you: your skin is red. Two things I remember about Gargoyle’s Quest: how I made the money to buy it and how surprised I was finding out the protagonist was red. Also, the many spikes. Three things I remember about Gargoyle’s Quest: how I made the money to buy it, how surprised I was finding out the protagonist was red, the many spikes, and the gnarly trees, the inextinguishable flames, the different breath weapons… Among the many things I remember about Gargoyle’s Quest is that it is a game literally worth it’s weight in chocolate.

I think he stepped aside too late, he made a fool out of himself and she failed to distance herself enough from him. There wasn't really time.

Thanks guys. We got him as a puppy. He was the runt of the litter and nobody wanted him, so he was all alone in the pet shop. My wife immediately fell in love with him (although, yeah, back then she was not my wife yet ). It was a gamble, because we didn't know how the cat would take to him. Pretty well, as it turns out, so a couple of months later we had a young Westie with all the fun mannerisms of his breed who was mostly socialized by a cat who adopted him. It made him borderline untrainable and no matter how hard we tried and added some cat mannerisms added into the mix. They're already a notoriously stubborn breed, and since the cat never once did what we told her to do, neither did he. He peed like the cat, and after he was done, he would take a step or two forward and start scratching the ground with his hind legs. You know, to cover it like the cat does in her litterbox. It was adorable. He eventually started to leave his marks here and there (even though we had him neutered, no idea where he picked that up, but he only ever did that outside) in the normal way male dogs do their business, but that was only for marking. Yeah, he did, tumors aside, he was in really good shape for his age. We only needed the vet a handful of times. The funniest one was when he was lying in a corner, whining and being miserable. That was a Sunday evening and we called the emergency vet hotline, brought him to the vet, the vet pressed a little on his abdomen to see what might be the cause for his discomfort, and then he farted loudly and everything was fine again. 300€ for flatulence. The other stuff were vaccinations and a minor injury from an ill-fated attempt at playing with another dog, and one time he ate dark chocolate that fell out of a bag. That one was a close call, but we noticed it early enough. Vet gave him something to throw up, and Simon then proceeded to take a giant dump right in the waiting area as a thank you. Like I said, he hated being at the vet. Heh. Yeah, can't imagine ever not missing him. He was a happy and super cute little dog who tried his best to be a cat. Speaking of the cat, she's been nervous for a while now. She used to play with the dog and they'd chase each other, and recently always went to check on him. She misses him and is constantly chasing my wife for attention at the moment. Back when they were both a lot younger, she'd sometimes jump on the table to steal some food and throw it down to him.

About 35 hours in, felt like writing something. Not sure how long this game is, seems like there's still lots more Overall impression is "kinda ok". Probably wouldn't play this if I wasn't interested in the DA world. Story setup felt interesting, like I said before, but after that it's felt a bit meh. Some of the factions in the game world have been changed, and IMO in a boring way. Can't avoid change, I guess, but the Qunari just feel like basic baddies now and the Crows like a vigilante group. Apparently this mostly relies on stories from non-game DA products, but doesn't save them from being boring choices. Main baddies are boring, hoping they'll shape up by the end. Most of the NPCs are either immediately on your side, or your enemies, without too much in between. Dialogue is the usual Bioware fare of quipping and one-liners. The main difference is there's no massive interrogation trees with important characters anymore, most of dialogue is either in party banter or in specific quests for them. Lots of just text stuff around to flesh out things, like in most RPGs. Exploration is quite parkoury and 3D. There's always things to fiddle with, or loot to get. It's quite smooth overall, but you can spend 30mins trying to reach a chest without figuring it out. But it does feel meaningful, in that what you find ties into the rest of the game fine. Combat grew on me a bit. At the start it felt like I was just dodging 90% of the time, but it feels quite smooth now. I don't play that many games with actiony combat like this, so not sure how other games do it. I'd still prefer the more party based approach of older DA games.

If all else fails, go on OnlyForks.

Oh noes.

I've had the word Apprenticeship on a test for about twenty years. The students are supposed to describe the process of being an apprentice. Today a student wrote that an apprenticeship is a ship that holds many apprentices.

Bigger worlds in video games inevitably means lower content density and more walking around with not much to see or do... ...But given that it's a Bethesda game, I'm not certain that it's necessarily a bad thing to put more space between the player and the game's writing/design.

For a while now, I've wanted to write something about me and Obsidian. About the history, about the community, about the games. From Sith Lords and Project New Jersey up to Avowed and Outer Worlds 2. I've been here for 20 years. If it sounds like a long time, it's because it is. I first joined the forums on the day they opened, along with a bunch of people who had come here from the old Black Isle Community, which I was never a part of. Western RPGs were at a bit of a low ebb in 2004, especially PC ones. Bioware and Bethesda were the major RPG developers at the time, and already responsible for some of my favourite RPGs ever. However, while both Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights had a lot to offer, and I was very much looking forward to them, they ended up not quite meeting my expectations. Bloodlines came out that same year, and while great, it did not do as well as it deserved. To me, at least, it kind of felt like Obsidian would be the torchbearers for the kind of RPGs I wanted to play. C&C was the key design feature: Choice and consequence. Or as some of us used to say back then, "The Chosen One must choose!" I wanted games with multiple paths, where my gameplay choices affected the storyline and the world around my character. I wanted the sort of agency I felt I got in games like Fallout, Planescape Torment, or Baldur's Gate 2, but more so. I felt that the CRPG as a genre was good but could move forward and improve, and even back then I already felt that wasn't happening. With game budgets already ballooning, the trend was not to make games with loads of essentially optional content but rather to create games with very rigid critical paths, or open world games with very little gameplay depth. RPG features that I thought should be standard were falling by the wayside, instead of being improved and expanded upon. And that was what I often focused on when posting here on the forums. Or maybe not. Sometimes I did do some substantial posting, but frequently my posts were little more than short jokes, trying to get a laugh out of people. More often than not I was just lurking, perhaps silently agreeing with posters like Metadigital or Baley, while disagreeing with posters like Volourn or Hades_One. But it was without noticing that eventually the community became a part of my identity. It quickly became a daily online destination for me, a way to connect to like-minded people across the world. And it led to slowly making sort of online friends like Role-Player, Darth Drabek, or Rosbjerg, by being a part in events and side communities. I even met some forum denizens in real life, and thanks to the coming of Obsidian loot, I now go around in my everyday life with Obsidian stuff, be it a pen, a backpack or a t-shirt. My wife knows that Obsidian games are my jams, my kids sometimes used to wish they'd get gaming loot like me. Nowadays I don't post that often on the forums. I still lurk on a daily basis and help out a bit with stuff as time permits. What I think about, sometimes, are the people that have come and gone. People that have been around for a decade or more that I feel are still new users, users that were here for a short time but left an indelible mark. Forum posters that I cherished and enjoyed, and others who were infuriating and wrong. Essentially, in some ways I'm not the person I was when I joined. 20 years is a long time, I said. In the time I've been here I left a degree, went into another degree, got a job, started a career in an area I never thought I'd be in, became somewhat good at it, moved to another country, acquired a whole new family, lost my parents, learned to enjoy myself, developed a serious comic book reading habit. It's a lot and it happened without me noticing, really. But I'm still the same person, as well. I'm still a gamer, with a healthy focus on RPGs, I still furiously devour music and books and movies, I still have a terrible tendency to want to be right about everything, (to my own detriment "I'm right and you're wrong" brings me joy), I'm still a nerd, and I still want to finish that first degree. I also sometimes still wonder what it would be like to work at Obsidian. Even if I'm really not a fit for the company, or Irvine, or SoCal in general. Pretty sure my family would have liked it though.

I'm pretty confident that Boeroer + Maxquest + Thelee + Constantin Lévine (the master of the obscure cheese) + me put together beat Obsidian team. I don't even think the 5 of us would be required. Probably "pick 2" would be enough. I don't blame Obsidian though. It's not the same thing to do something as a job.