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Sking

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Posts posted by Sking

  1. Hey mrhawn,

     

    Hmmm... This issue seems to unique to the Backer Beta version. Our full release of the Deadfire will have these resolution options. Sorry we missed this for the patch.

     

    - Sking

     

    [Edit] I may have found a fix for this you guys can do on your ends. This fixed it for me on my end.

    1. Close out of the Beta client
    2. Run your regedit.exe (type regedit into your windows search bar)
    3. Find both Pillars of Eternity folders
      • Computer/User/Software/Obsidian/Pillars of Eternity II
      • Computer/User/Software/Obsidian/Pillars of Eternity 2
    4. Delete both
    5. Launch the Beta client
    • Like 1
  2. Hey you bunch of sensatinal gamers,

     

    Our update is now live! To gain access to the Backer Beta, visit this (Forum Link) for step by step instructions. This is a Beta and will most definitely contain a few issues. Please report any issues you find here (Forum Link). 

     

    We spent a long time going over everyone's feedback from the last BB Update and changed quite a few things around. You'll notice this patch is almost entirely system changes. A full breakdown of the changes are listed below. Jump in and definitely keep the feedback coming.

     

    NEW CONTENT

    Please note that older saves will not work on the latest patch! Apologies for the inconvenience.

     

    Save File location moved

    • From - %USERPROFILE%/Saved Games/Pillars of Eternity 2
    • To - %USERPROFILE%/Saved Games/Pillars of Eternity II

    Action Bar revision - The HUD art has been revised for the action bar. We added a bit of flair to the empower portion specifically.

     

    Optimizations - Ongoing performance optimizations for GPU and CPU.

     

    Smart Camera - New toggle-able camera mode that has the camera follow the players movements automatically. This option can be toggled 'on' or 'off' in the options menu.

     

    Combat Slider - New combat slider added to the center of the HUD. You can now slow/speed up combat at your leisure ranging from very slow/slow to fast/very fast. Fast mode remains the same toggle outside of combat.

     

    New item Highlight - Items recently picked up that haven't been inspected by the player now highlight blue in the inventory.

     

    BB Content Changes

    • BB character now begins with fine leather, fine mail, and fine plate

    • All Grimoires in the BB now have 2 spells per level

    SYSTEM CHANGES

     

    Expanded Passive Abilities - To address feedback about the loss of Talents from PoE 1, we have added many more passive abilities to class trees and increased the number of abilities that single class characters receive at each power level (see below).

     

    Turn-Based ship combat - Ship duels are now conducted turn-by-turn instead of round-by-round. Half and full-sail movement actions are no longer restricted in frequency.

     

    Cannon re-balance - Cannon values have been re-balanced to make them strategic choices instead of upgrades

     

    Single Class characters gain 2 abilities at PL increase - All single class characters will gain 2 abilities every time they achieve a new power level.  This change was made to address concerns that single class characters felt like they didn't have enough options at any given character level.  It also allows characters to dip into passive abilities (which have been expanded considerably) more easily.

     

    Canceling cast doesn't take resource - Canceling an ability or item use, whether by movement, selecting another action, or simply hitting the cancel button, will not consume the resource associated with the ability.  This makes changing actions much less punitive.  An Interrupt will still consume the resources of an ability or item it Interrupts.

     

    Penetration re-balance - Weapons and spells have been reorganized around two penetration categories - average and high - instead of low/average/high. "Best of" weapons and spells typically have 1 lower Penetrations compared to other weapons and spells in their penetration category.

     

    Attribute Cap of 35 - To prevent the effects of Attributes from scaling away into infinity, they are now capped to 35.  We chose this number based on both where we wanted the influence of Attributes to max out as well as what we believed was within the reach of aggressive min-maxers.

     

    Might/Resolve Change - Strength has been reverted to Might and affects Damage, Healing, and Fortitude as it did in Pillars 1.  Resolve has also been reverted to affect Deflection and Will as it did in Pillars 1.  We have added an additional benefit to Resolve: reduced duration of hostile effects (3% per point) on the character (increased if it is below 10).  This was done in conjunction with capping Attributes to a max of 35.  This does not address the primary goal of making Resolve more appealing for casters, but we believe it does make Resolve more generally valuable for a variety of characters.  It also integrates into the system using mechanics that are already well-established, which is of importance at this stage of development.  Thank you to everyone for your patience as we experimented with the attribute system and for the fans for continuing to discuss and suggest ideas throughout the project.

     

    Interrupt added to many rogue abilities - Most rogue abilities that are weapon-based attacks now Interrupt on Hit

     

    Weapon re-balance - Across the board weapon balance

     

    Druid Bonus Spells/Animist Subclass - Like priests, all druids now receive bonus spells at each power level.  To make druids mechanically function like priests, the Animist subclass has been added and the "No Subclass" option has been removed..  Animists have no special modifiers other than access to a list of bonus spells.

     

    Martial Tree Unlock Level Adjustments - The levels at which the martial classes access various abilities have been adjusted, both to lower the overall requirements and to make a smoother progression as the characters advance.

     

    General Casting changes

    • Shortened cast times of Very Slow and Slow
    • Shortened Recovery of Slow
    • Summon Weapon spells now Average cast

    Food/meal pricing reworked

     

    Cipher Buffs

    • Cipher spells are all faster casts/ many were tuned up
    • Cipher Focus gain rate doubled

    ('unedited' List of specific systems check ins)

     

    Whisper of Treason’s Duration has been doubled (10s -> 20s)

    Wounding Shot has again been nerfed now from 33% damage per tick to 20% damage per tick

    Flames of Devotion has been reduced from +50% burn proc to +30% burn proc

    Lightning Strikes has been reduced from +50% shock proc to +30% shock proc

    Assassinate Critical Hit damage reduced from +100% damage to +50% damage

    Very Fast, Fast, Average, and Slow Recovery Times have been increased by 1s each

    Slow and Very Slow Cast Times have been reduced by 1s each

    Dual Wield Recovery bonus has been reduced from -50% to -30% Recovery

    Beckoner now also reduces summon duration by roughly (~25%)

    Many chanter summons that had base durations above 30s have had their base duration reduced

    Armored Grace has had its effect halved, because of how complicated Armor Speed Factor is, this equates roughly to the following:

    With Heavy Armor: Was -67% of Armor Recovery Penalty, is now -38% reduced penalty

    With Medium Armor: Was -82% of Armor Recovery Penalty, is now – 45% reduced penalty

    With Light Armor: Was -100% of Armor Recovery Penalty, is now -65% reduced penalty

    Berserker Frenzy Hit to Crit bonus reduced from +50% to +30%

    Marked Prey now only provides Accuracy, reduced from +15 to +10

    Sworn Enemy now only provides Damage at +20%

    Thrust of Tattered Veils damage reduced down to 10-18

    Almost all Slow and Very Slow cast speed spells that dealt direct damage have had their damage increased by roughly 30% (pulse effects were mostly omitted)

    All food prices have been categorized by potency and morale effect (for nearly all food this means an overall reduction in price)

    All food recipes have had their ingredients adjusted to be appropriate to their new prices, so that no recipe is a money battery via buying->crafting→selling

    All food and meal effects have been adjusted and tuned to be roughly appropriate to their new categories

    Overall it should be a lot clearer that better food, is more expensive, gives more morale, and better bonuses.

    Infestation of Maggots now properly deal damage over time (escalating based on the target's missing health)

    Fixed errors with Great Abjuration's Destroy status effect.

    Horned Helm now has the correct appearance and string.

    Divine Mark now has keywords!

    Grimoires have all had a pass to contain 2 spells per power level from power levels 1 through 9.

    All grimoires have had polish passes over their spell contents, and many have been updated to preserve spell exclusivity and thematic impression

    All characters will now react to sparkcracker noise.

    Defender and Guardian stance now have override strings to display their defensive bonuses (Mob Stance too, for recovery modifiers)

    Unbreakable can now be chosen at level up

    Play Dead can now be chosen at level up

    Candied Nuts are now in the "Very Positive" recipe category.

    Fixed conditional errors in Ranger and Fighter progression tables that prevented acquisition of (Unbreakable and Play Dead)

    Fireball now has an average cast time

    Quarterstaves now no longer have +5 Accuracy AND Reach (Accuracy was removed)

    All invisibility effects in the game have had their removal events updated to an event that more reliably guarantees stealth/invisibility attack bonuses will succeed to apply

    Many many many abilities have had override strings employed to make their effects more human readable and hide places where procedural logic can't account effectively

    Pommel Counter now also uses the Pommel Strike custom attack variation

    Deathblows now functions and its effect has been reduced from +100% damage to +50% when meeting qualifications.

    Combusting Wounds now has keywords that prevent recursive looping

    Dazing Shout now has proper pen and will deal damage.

    Purge of Toxin's base duration has been increased from 10s to 30s.

    Hel-Hyraf chanter invocation armor penalty reduced from -5AR to -2AR.

    Touch of Death is now an average cast time (previously Slow)

    Deep Faith's base defensive bonus reduced from +15 to +12 (deity scaling unchanged)

    "The Arrow Sings" phrase penetration bonus reduced from +2 to +1.

    Intellect attribute AOE scaling is now +10% per point (from +6%)

    Stoic Steel now appears on the portrait again and the interval for gaining AR is increased from 3s to 6s.

    Cipher Focus gain rate is now doubled.

    All cipher spell cast times were evaluated and nearly all of them were reduced by one cast speed category. There are now no Slow or Very Slow cipher spells, all are now Fast or Average.

    Implemented missing cipher ability "Defensive Mindweb".

    Moved cipher "Echoing Shield" from PL 4 to PL 5 and revised the ability to remove concentration from all enemies in the area and grant the Resolute Inspiration to allies.

    Gunpowder barrels can now be ignited AND exploded by damage from Fire, Electricity, or Firearm keywords.

    Lowered Fireball attack distance from 10m to 8m.

    Curse of Blackened Sight is now average cast speed (from slow)

    Reduced clip size on blunderbuss from 8 to 5, to match the projectile count.

    Removed hard-written values from Burning Burst override string and rewrote string.

    Removed hard-written values from Enduring Flame override string and rewrote string.

    Removed unnecessary override string from Fiery Core effect.

    Reworked Blazing Core to remove unnecessary event with duration of effect.

    Living Pyre Burn Proc now stacks properly.

    Living Pyre now has a proper override string with no hard-written values.

    Burning Burst is now an On Kill triggered event, rather than on Crit. This will help balance it against Enduring Flame.

    Fixed errors in attack filters for AR Penalty and Buff that were not applying to weapon attacks only.

    Lowered Aura size of all mod auras to 5m, from 10m.

    Created override strings for Aura effects and refactored data to only display effects once for each aura, rather than once per companion per effect.

    Reduced clip size on blunderbuss from 8 to 5 to match projectile count.

    Added Injury affliction type string.

    Added ico_status_diseased to the npc Disease Immunity passive.

    Restricted temp recipe access for whispers of yenwood and its variant weapons.

    Wrote override strings for Reaping Knives.

    "Empower" is now case sensative.

    Cinder Bomb ability noise level set to Quiet.

    Sabre base mod reduced to +10% damage from 20%

    Weapon damage and penetration revision. Pen 7 increased to 9. Pen 5 increased to 7. Damage range tuning.

    Slow and Very Slow Cast times are now 4.5s and 6s respectively from 5 and 8.

    Pen rebalance on all spells and summoned weapons now cast at average speed.

    Increased the Engwithan Titan's base health and health per level.

    Strings have been added to Call to the Clutch ability.

    Updated all weapon reload end times on reload attack data.

    Word "Crew" is now case sensative as a glossary link.

    Accuracy term now requires capitalization.

    Boots of the Stone now displays the "Smoothly Jointed" mod.

    Set up Poultry effect properly, it wasn't doing anything after the last change, now it appears on the portrait and heals properly.

    Created glossary entries for Power Level and a variant for Power Levels.

    Stealth Recovery Bonus now has a proper string.

    Rewrote Whispers of the Dead override string.

    Cleaned up the string override for Swashbuckling.

    data cleanup on Salve of Dissolution.

    Added Salve of Dissolution game data back to the base game package.

    Fixed weapon quality upgrade prices that were lowered in error.

    Added string id for flanked affliction type.

    Removed null script from Spell Holding Consecrated Ground asset.

    Removed null status effect collection values.

    Fixed string name typos, missing string ids, and missing description ids.

    Fixed mismatched references of incorrect item mod abilities and status effects.

    Added string override for captivating crystal.

    Added proper override string for Revelation that mentinons that only KITH may be Frightened on Crit.

    Fixed several overridden fields that were invalidating scepter parent values.

    Removed mechanical values from string descriptions.

    Added mention of the additional bounce as a special effect (not inherent to scepters)

    Inverted all reload time modifiers as the status effect was inverted when reload time was made to be modified by recovery and armor penalties.

    Parented reference to be from Rod, not scepter and removed overrides that were invalidating parenting.

    Fixed Power Level mods that had no effect because Power Level doesn't use attack filter.

    Removed unnecessary override strings from Power Level status effects.

    % chances for occurrence, durations, and intervals are no longer hard-written into these strings.

    Earth Blight Eora's Pull and Eora's Grip have been changed to the Crowd Control enemy ability icon.

    Data cleanup on lance of the midwood stag.

    Removed duration and defense values that were hard-written into override strings.

    Guardian Stance now properly reports its incremental value.

    Resonant Touch now applies to the target, rather than the monk, on hit.

    Moved referred items from Food sorting tab to Ingredients sorting tab in stash.

    Removed duplicate power level/accuracy status effect from explosives global passive.

    Set Fighter charge ability to PL 8 as intended. (from 6)

    Raw Damage dealt by Soul Annihilation is now marked Hostile and should float text.

    Set Fighter charge ability to PL 8 as intended. (from 6)

    Raw Damage dealt by Soul Annihilation is now marked Hostile and should float text.

    Fixed switched heal values on Battle Unending.

    Also tuned down effects from Vehemence, Battle Unending, and Kaul's Stance.

    Lowered Aura size of all mod auras to 5m, from 10m.

    Created override strings for Aura effects and refactored data to only display effects once for each aura, rather than once per companion per effect.

    All attributes are now capped at 35 points.

    Apparently we support a boolean on items to allow them to sell for full value, apologies for missing that the first time over. Fine Great Swords will now sell for the correct price.

    Removed Mutual exclusivity amongst Monk Duality upgrades.

    Updated companion single class progression tables to account for the bonus talent point on newly reached power levels.

    Removed all override strings with hard-written values.

    Martial classes now use the term "abilities" rather than "spells" on their character sheet.

    Created variant armor assets for each of the druid spiritshift forms and updated each spiritshift changeform effect to make use of them.

    All DST chracter stats are now of race "None" rather than "Vessel".

    Updated wording in Amplified Thrust string.

    Removed null item mod status effect field in collection.

    Added glossary entry for Corrosive variant of "Corrode".

    Removed erroneous hard-written string variant of the Flanking glossary entry. "Flanked" now referrs to "Flanking" and describes the concept. Anywhere that "Flanked" appears in a stat block, it will procedurally show its mechanical effects.

    "Critically Hit" now has a glossary link to crit.

    "crew" now requires capitalization to show a glossary link.

    All Chant AI actions now also validate that the existing chant is not active.

    All NPC used Chants no longer require a modal in their group to be active (this was activating chants before the NPC could make a decision and forcing them to wait).

    New Conditional for child nodes with cooldowns was added to the parent chant conditional node in the chanter AI tree.

    Animal Companion weapons have all been given scaling quality.

    Chanter AI no longer tries to cycle chants in the first 4 seconds of combat, because the phrases are hard coded to activate the first chant and trigger a cooldown in this time.

    Chanter AI will now much more accurately verify when they should cycle phrases to prevent switching phrases erratically.

    Additionally Eoten decision tree will now properly choose chants and chants now have icons.

    Difficulty system now shows a 4th skull type at 4+ levels above the player. This uses the new red icon.

    Play Dead and Deadly Surprise reworked to more reliably KO the Animal Companion, display more clearly in the stat block, and to properly remove the Deadly Surprise Damage Bonus.

    Food is now in the "Combat Mechanics" Glossary category.

    The "Equipment" Category is no longer in the "Lore" Metacategory and has been moved to the "Mechanics" Metacategory.

    Several Glossary entries for equipment mechanics that don't exist in deadfire (Spell Holding, Spell Striking, etc...) have been deleted.

    All Animal Companions are now of class "Ranger" instead of "None".

    Resonant Touch child effects now trigger their apply effect when stacked.

    Fixed some override strings on Violet Redemption and swapped the "Negate Next Recovery" status effect to a 0% Recovery Mult.

    Changed all generic talents (including berath's blessings) that were set up with missing icons to use the generic talent icon.

    Created "Infamous Captain" passive talent. This is ready to be given out wherever intended.

    Druid Changes:

    Druids are now granted free spells by their subclass at new power levels.

    Druids now require a subclass.

    A new druid subclass "Animist" has been added, which offers no bonuses, and no penalties, but still has a free spell list visible to the player at character creation.

    All Druid NPC progression tables that previously had no subclass now are Animists.

    Strings have been added and retranslated to support the above changes to druids.

    Martial Class Tree Pass:

    Fighter Specialization / Master lowered to +10%/+5%, respectively.

    Fighter Pommel Strike is now Power Strike - +4 Pen x2 Damage Full Attack, w/ 6 sec Stun and 120 degree arc Stagger + Raw Damage.

    Fighter Pommel Counter is now Inspired Strike - Adds Acute and Swift to the fighter for 10s afterwards.

    Fighter Charge is now at PL 4.

    Fighters now have a new level 8 ability "Inspired Discipline", 4 Disc cost grants every Tier 1 Inspiration for 30s to the fighter.

    Barbarian Hurl Weapon is now "Instrument of Boundless Rage" - same as before, but on impact triggers a Fireball.

    Paladin Reviving Exhortation is now at PL 4, its upgrades are now at PL 6.

    Paladin Abjuration is now at PL 5.

    Paladin Light of the Beyond is now named "Light of Pure Zeal" and now also damages Spirits. Dmg is now best of Burn/Freeze.

    Ranger Heal Companion is now at PL 2 and its upgrades are PL 4.

    Ranger Revive Companion is now at PL 3 and its upgrades are at PL 5.

    Ranger Twinned Shot is now at PL 8.

    Ranger Whirling Dervish is now named "Whirling Strikes" and is now PL 8 with the same bond cost as Twinned Shot.

    Ranger Play Dead is now PL 6 and its upgrade is PL 7.

    Ranger Active Camoulflage is now named "Shadowed Hunters" and no longer requires the ranger or their AC to stand still. Also heals the ranger and reduces hostile effect durations while active.

    Rogue Sap now also applies Hobbled to the target.

    Rogue Opportunist has been reworked and is now "Vanishing Strike", a 3 guile cost Full Attack that makes the rogue invisible as part of the strike (5s)

    Monk Skyward Kick now benefits from a +50% Damage Bonus.

    Monk Long Arm of the Law is now named "Instruments of Pain".

    Monk Exploding Palm is now named "Inner Death".

    Monk The Dance Continues is now named "Enduring Dance".

    Monk Wave of Force is now named "Efficient Anguish".

    Monk Clarity of Mind is now named "Enlightened Agony".

    Monk Dim Mak is now named "Empowered Strikes".

    Companion Progression Tables have been updated to match the above changes.

    AI has been updated for abilities that have been drastically modified (targeting mainly).

    Ability JIRA assets have been updated to reflect naming and power level changes.

    Data assets have all been updated to reflect new naming changes.

    Might is now highly recommended for Wizard, as it was before the Might/Resolve change.

    Replaced null field in custom barbarian progression table with a proper ability reference.

    Rekke's Race is now storm folk on his character stats.

    Maia, Pallegina, and Aloth now have 3 class options available when they are recruited.

    Storm Human now has a unique subrace enum type and is using it in data.

    Backer Beta character now starts with Fine Leather, Fine Scale, and Fine Plate.

    Prologue Armoire now gives the player Mail Armor.

    All companions and sidekicks should now offer 3 class options when recruited.

    Economy pass over unique item buy costs:

    Exceptional Weapons/Armor/Shields are worth 2k more.

    Legendary Weapons/Armor/Shields are worth ~12k more.

    Superb Weapons/Armor/Shields are worth ~8k more.

    Unique Superb Accessories are worth 2k more.

    Unique Legendary Accessories are worth 4k more.

    Two Handed Items are 1.5x more expensive than 1h (down from 2x)

    Petrification, Touch of Death, Disintegration, Detonate, Boil Their Flesh, Sip From The Marrow, and Death Ring each require Veteran or Path of the Damned for the AI to select them as an action.

    All taverns now have unique rooms and each room has had a rest bonus effect designed for it. All room bonuses are unique that specific room.

    Sidekick progression tables are complete along with skills progression based on some discussion with narrative about these character's personalities.

    Corpse Eater and Flesh Communion now state that the barbarian must consume "deceased" corpses, unconscious does not suffice.

    Ascendant has been redesigned to "Ascend" at maximum focus, which causes all cipher powers to cost 0 focus and gain bonus power level until the effect fades, at which point the cipher will fall to 0 focus.

    All data for Watcher abilities has been set up and should be in the game (some I think still have tasks to be given out)

    Koami's store in Sayuka now also sells adventuring supplies and healing potions.

    Flame Naga Archers will now use Burning Veins more reliably on targets that are in melee range of them and the effect uses a custom display string.

    Race tooltips in character creation should no longer display missing strings.

    Power Pool now has a glossary entry that matches the Power Pool tutorial.

    Paladin's Glorious Beacon (and its upgrades) now has a base duration of 8s (up from 4s)

    Considerably increased the duration of the debuffs from Barbaric Yell and its upgrades.

    Mule Kick's Discipline cost is lowered from 3 to 2.

    Hobbling Shot's Hobble effect increased to 10s base duration.

    Evasive Fire now uses the Strength Attribute for scaling.

    Ranger's Predator Sense damage bonus increased from +20% to +50% on target's with DoT effects.

    Strike the Bell and its upgrades are reduced from 3 guile cost to 2.

    Torment's Reach now uses Strength to calculate damage.

    Priest's Halt duration raised from 10s to 15s base.

    Devotions for the Faithful will now roll against Will defense for the hostile portion of its attack (previously wasn't rolling defense)

    Priest Prayers and Litany spells can now be used on Charmed or CC'd party members to counter affliction effects.

    Her Revenge Swept Across attacks are no longer Slow Recovery and have the same penetration as the base ability "Thrice Was She Wronged"

    Lowered the base duration of Paralyze and Frighten on "At The Sound of His Voice the Killers Froze Stiff" from 8s to 6s.

    Reny Daret's Ghost Spake and its upgrade have had their debuff durations increased from 12s to 15s.

    Doubled the Disengage Accuracy penalty on "The Fox From the Farmer Did Leap" phrase, from -10 to -20.

    Aefyllath now is restricted to weapon attacks only.

    Cipher's Mind Wave Raw Damage increased from 8-10 to 10-15.

    Amplified Thrust damage increased from 16-24 to 30-38.

    Soul Ignition base damage per tick raised from 14 to 16.

    Brutal Backlash's base damage increased from 12 Raw to 20.

    Cipher "Keen Mind" passive now grants more focus at the beginning of combat, from +5 to +10.

    Autumn's Decay initial damage increase to 20-28 Corrode to differentiate it more from Touch of Rot.

    Round shields and Heater shield icons hooked up.

    Nature's Balm base duration lowered from 18s to 15s.

    Form of the Delemgan now uses a Stride Mult rather than deprecated additive movement, set at (+25%).

    Form of the Delemgan typed AR bonuses lowered from +8 to +6.

    Cleansing Wind's base heal value increased from 28 to 48.

    Deleterious Alacrity of Motion self damage lowered from base 8 to 6.

    Confusion's base duration increased from 20s to 30s.

    Arkemyr's Wondrous Torment base duration increased from 10s to 30s and cast time reduced to Average with Average Recovery.

    Form of the Helpless Beast base duration increased from 10s to 15s.

    Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring's base damage lowered from 18-22 per tick down to 8-10 and the duration lowered from 15s to 12s.

    Ringleader's Charm and Dominate increased from base 10s to 20s.

    Puppetmaster and Ringleader are no longer combat only.

    Tactical Meld is now combat only.

    Carnage's damage attribute is now Strength.

    Beckoner summons now mention in their stat blocks that they are increased in summon count due to Beckoner.

    Strike the Bell and its upgrades now all properly apply their effects and also gain the inherent penetration bonus. Also added custom strings so this reads more cleanly.

    All Port-Maje stores have had a second pass to reduce them as close to a single page as possible (weapon shop excluded) and also to provide 2 or more of each base weapon, etc...

    Wrath of the Five Suns is now shown as an upgrade to Sworn Enemy on the talent tree and Sworn Enemy is not removed.

    Lingering Echoes now uses a custom string for its numerous bonuses.

    Hunter's Instincts now references the new Graze changes.

    The first crate in Maje Sea Cave now contains a torch to try and convince players to check out our sweet dynamic lighting.

    Bleeding Cut, Destructive Channeling, Wild Mind, Ascendant, and Mage Slayer effects all have custom strings to be human readable.

    Call to Slumber now uses a unique "Asleep" affliction and no longer refers to this as "Unconscious".

    Conjure Familiar now only mentions summoned creatures in the stat block, so there should be no more confusion about what kinds of creatures it summons.

    Conjure Familiar bonuses have all been tuned up.

    Unarmed Proficiency has been created and should be available soon, (Pending a code change with weapon proficiency restrictions) - It will be auto-granted to everyone.

    Withering Strike, Perishing Strike, Toxic Strike, and Mule Kick all have 25% bonus damage and it is visible on their stat block.

    Druid Fury no longer references Regeneration as a keyword and will only reference "Rejuvenation".

    Mage Slayer now actually gains their "Spell Resistance" rather than the temp spell defense bonus.

    Stag Carnage, Shattered Pillar, Wild Leech now all have human readable strings.

    Maura Tentacle no longer has a recursive loop on it's immobilize on hit effect.

    Unbroken subclass string now clearly mentions "Shield Mastery".

    Brand Enemy now properly ticks damage again.

    Evoker "Echo" effect reduced from a 30% proc chance to 15%.

    Fury Druid Storm's Rage now benefits from Fury's passive penetration bonus.

    The Royal Bronzer cannon is now sold at Uto's Gunsmith in the Brass Citadel

    Tekehu now has a proper chanter progression table and is no longer using an NPC table.

    Tekehu and Konstanten now start with a few premade chants to get the player started.

    Rotghast Trail of Worms no longer spams the combat log.

    Kraken's Eye tavern will now give the player a discount if they peacefully resolved the better man quest.

    Fixed an accidental nerfing of the Hunting Bow modal ability, it's now properly trading off -15 Accuracy for -50% Recovery Time.

    Reworked Resonant Touch to remove the damage threshold in favor of only triggering on weapon attacks.

    Lowered Companion Attribute points back down to 15 and in CC. (the bonus 3 points I thought were missing were actually from Race and Culture) - Doh!

    Added glossary entries for Hurt, Bloodied, Healthy, and Unharmed. (Near Death already existed)

    Prayer for the Body, Prayer for the Spirit, Litany for the Body, and Litany for the Spirit are all now Average Cast with Fast Recovery and 60 sec base durations (this is up from being slow cast and having inconsistent durations).

    Ilari now has a Cloak of Deflection rather than a Ring of Protection (since there's already one in the sea cave in maje)

    Fixed penetration data error on elemental generic passive talents.

    Cleaned up Ogre Transformation attacks a bit, they are now using a swiping attack anim, rather than a punch and have proper strings that refer to Ogre Fist, rather than club.

    Flanked now also lowers the target's Armor by 1.

    Conjure Familiar bonuses have all been reworked. All Familiars now grant +1 Power Level to the Conjurer, while active. This helps mitigate an issue with the familiars feeling too random. Familiars now also each have had their attributes and bonus effects re-balanced and re-distributed. Each now includes an associated attribute buff and minor mechanical effect.

    Rejoice, My Comrades... and its upgrade are now Non-Offensive invocations.

    Sharpshooter's bonus Pen is lowered from +2 to +1.

    Added Damage, Accuracy, and Penetration scaling to Battle-Forged racial passive.

    Binding Web is now Fast cast with Slow Recovery, rather than vise-versa.

    One-Handed Style now uses Hit to Crit conversion rather than Miss to Graze.

    "Yet It's Mate Was More Feared" Drake now has a proper selection circle size.

    "And Evil Turned Away From The Sun" now has proper penetration and the vessel damage now uses the "Fire" keyword.

    "At the Sound of His Voice" is no longer a "Mind" effect.

    Heart Chime Amulet has been removed from Talfor and both Talfor and his pirates have had their magic items re-balanced.

    Squids can no longer be found in default cabinet loot lists.

    Steel Garrote Lay on Hands is now a 2 point cost ability.

    Shatter Their Shackles and its upgrade now grant Dex Affliction Immunity for a base 10sec duration, rather than only instantly.

    Bloodlust triggered effects can now be seen on the portrait with an icon.

    Sanza's Emporium should now rotate out 3-5 different types of lore books from various cultures.

    Miscreant's Leather now has a proper non-zero Armor Speed Factor.

    Konstanten, Rekke, and Ydwin now have weapon proficiencies granted in their progression tables.

    Recall Agony now has a custom string so you can more easily understand its effects.

    Finishing Blow and its upgrades are now 2 Guile cost (down from 3).

    Come, Come, Soft Winds of Death and Dragon Thrashed, Dragon Wailed have been rebalanced against each other and now tick on the target over time. Come, Come, Soft Winds now restores some health back to the chanter as long as it hits at least one enemy. Dragon Thrashed now alternates randomly between Burn and Pierce damage.

    Among the Waves is now combat only.

    Fixed npc fighter progression table null references to deleted weapon style data.

    Significantly increased the potency of focus gain when using "Draining Whip".

    Streetfighter's bonuses related to being in Flanked and Bloodied states have been notably improved. Recovery reduction has been adjusted from -20% to -50%. Sneak Attack damage has been increased from +20% +50%.

    There is now a glossary link for "Critical Hit".

    Pickpocket loot lists have been made for each primary faction type and have been assigned out to every NPC in the game.

    Unarmed Proficiency ability is now properly referenced in global game data references and should now be granted to characters.

    Falling unconscious from effects with no damage type will now trigger the "Gaping Wound" injury.

    Bonus Damage Proc string now explicitly mentions that procs occur on damage you deal.

    Several Cipher Spells that specifically mention affecting the target's Mind have been given the "Mind" keyword.

    Xoti's Sickle mods now scale on Religion.

    Blood Soaked Grimoire now has spells in it.

    Gunner passive talent now speeds up reload, rather than slowing it down.

    Removed missing icons for all pet abilities and did a pass on all backer pets to attach their correct item icons.

    Trickster Rogues now are autogranted their illusion spells from their subclass.

    Audited unique items that had extra item mods on them from testing and removed all of these extra mods.

    Liches no longer Terrify you every time you hit them, now only when you hit them with a "Gaze" keyword ability.

    Fixed a recursive loop in vailian pickpocket loot lists.

    Fixed an issue with Arcane Blaster now properly slowing reload when "Imbued Ammunition" was active.

    Barrel loot lists have had their item drop rates heavily reduced.

    Ranger now properly benefits from Stalker's Link and companions no longer lose engagement when upgrading Protective Companion to Stalker's Link.

    Void Seers are now immune to slog zones.

    Refreshing Finale on Sasha's Singing Scimitar once again requires an Empowered Invocation to trigger.

    Gravehounds Undying Devotion has been CUT.

    All trap abilities have had their missing icon overrides removed and they now pull the correct trap item icon when being used.

    Greater Storm Blight's "Foul Wind" ability now spams the combat log a lot less.

    Swift Flurry now has a 33% chance to trigger an additional attack on crit, down from 50%.

    Flesh Communion has been removed from Dargul Corpse Eaters.

    Rare Iroccian Calendar lore book has been removed from random loot lists.

    Vektor no longer sells redundant adventurer's items.

    All Food Ingredients have had their costs lowered by half. All Food Meals have also been adjusted to about 1/3 of their previous values.

    Fury Druid claws and armor now scale properly

    Fury Druid Storm Bolt now deals a lot more damage and Stuns rather than Dazes.

    Lurkers will now much more reliably use their ranged attacks, rather than slowly chasing you for a melee attack always.

    Saru-Sichr no longer has a recursive loop.

    Tons and tons of glossary links in strings that weren't intended have been removed or set to require capitalization.

    Marked Prey, Marked for the Hunt and lots of other abilities now use custom strings to be more human readable.

    Shattered Pillar is now more explicit about handling wounds differently.

    Carnage now scales its potency based on level to stay relative to weapon damage at later levels.

    Nemnok is now also a vanity pet, I believe you'll be able to take bite-sized him with you after you handle his tantrum in the Drowned Barrows. He will also bark wonderful things at the party, thanks to Paul Kirsch

    Ungwith now has a wonderful boon to bestow upon players willing to pay for her time.

    Wrote a glossary entry for "Quick Items"

    Added several variant (plural, etc...) glossary entries for common mechanics and afflictions

    Spindle Man's store now has a lot more unique and magic items.

    "The Wall" modal is now combat only.

    Tekehu's subclass now autogrants each of his watershaper spells.

    All companion multiclass progression tables now account for the extra talent point they receive at new power levels.

    Sacred Immolation and their upgrades now remove their DoT on death and cannot be activated again while they are active

    Sworn Enemy and Marked Prey are now completely separated, meaning a Paladin/Ranger that uses one will no longer receive both effects.

    Troubadour now disables linger entirely while "Brisk Recitation" is active.

    Aegis of Loyalty no longer requires an "Unarmed" attack to trigger.

    All modal penalties have been tuned down, nearly all of them were halved, with a specific focus on recovery and attack speed penalties.

    Lots of recipe and enchanting strings and data are now in the backer beta packages.

    Holy Radiance now deals damage correctly again.

    Unarmed weapon proficiency is now automatically granted to all characters.

    Serafen is now a Raider rather than a Slave.

    Essential Phantom should now summon a proper duplicate.

    "Yet Its Mate Was More Feared" will now properly summon the second drake if the first is defeated.

    Pallegina's progression table no longer removes Sworn Enemy for WotFS and Vielo Vidorio has been properly removed from the game.

    Superb Weapons can now properly be upgrade to Legendary.

    Quality enchants now use the quality category.

    Assassin Vines can no longer hit themselves with their AOE auto attack.

    Druid Cat Claws are now "Fast" recovery.

    Created a quest reward talent for the Galawain resolution to the underwater dungeon.

    "No Pen" messages no longer appear unless you are at the minimum damage from pen.

    Sleight of Hand difficulties were lowered across the board.

    Helwalker wound scaling effects now display in a human readable fashion.

    Daggers can now be clicked or sold without deleting.

    All class descriptions in character creation now include a line or two describing their class resource and with a glossary link for each one summarizing how they work.

    Created a generic Slog Zone immunities passive that can be used on ghosts or other npcs we don't want to be slowed in water.

    Tikawara port now sells ship supplies in the base game.

    Neketata Shipyard can now provide a discount depending on how you deal with Zamar.

    All bombs can now be reverse pickpocketed and will explode properly when done so.

    Fighter Weapon Styles are now available to all classes (including Fighter) at PL2. All generic talents that were on PL2, and PL3 have been moved to PL3 and PL4, respectively.

    Concelhaut's Crushing Doom no longer contains various missing strings.

    Survival Skill no longer affects the duration of ingested consumables.

    Somehow the number of attribute points in character creation was reduced from 18 to 15 many many many months ago. No one knows why this was, so I've bumped it back to 18.

     

     

    KNOWN ISSUES

    • Lagufaeth Broodmother is missing a portrait and speaker tag
    • Ranga Ruanu is missing a portrait
    • Some items contain missing strings
    • World map doesn't have BGM
    • Veen is T-posing
    • Save file thumbnail is incorrect
    • Tikawara is mislabeled on the world map on first load.
    • Abilities and weapon proficiencies are swapped in the character sheet menu 
    • (Mac Only) Boarding audio repeats. Restart the client to correct this issue.

    BUG FIXES

    • Casters no longer passing up martial characters deflections due to Might/Resolve change (see above)
    • Rogue - 'Gouging Strike' now shows appropriately sized numbers
    • Corrosive Trap description now shows damage data
    • Beza's corpse no longer has vision cone to detect stealth
    • All Corrupted Adra Animat now all activate in the Engwithan Waystation Level Two
    • Binding Mouse1 no longer locks character movement
    • Gamma slider now functioning as intended
    • Auto-pause descriptions now appear
    • Assigning food to characters in the resting menu has been made easier
    • Modals no longer duplicate on the action bar
    • Can now target enemies on top of dead allies easier

     

    I got your back

     

    - SKing

    • Like 30
  3. Hey SaruNi,

     

    I'm going to look into this one. I actually received an email about this yesterday and I couldn't figure it out. Thanks for this information. I'll update you, once I verify this and get it into our system. 

     

    I got your back,

     

    SKing

     

    [Edit] Verified this and got it into our system. Thanks for reporting this one.

  4. Hey you bunch of clubbable gamers,


     


    I received some feedback in my inbox from an anonymous source and I figured we could all benefit from the wonders of discussing it.


     


    "To write this, I have replayed through PoE1 and expansions, as well of course several times through the PoE2 beta: My thoughts are offered regarding the franchise as a whole."


     


    - A wonderfully verbose fan of Eora 


     


    Character Creation:


    I remain bemused that elves are still described as intelligent but intellect is not one of their bonus statistics; intellect is not in the descriptor for “godlike”, yet for them it is a bonus statistic. Perhaps swap the two?


    Having the extra effects (and penalties) when multiclassing that reflect the combination of 2 classes: I thought that this a lovely feature that for me added depth, versatility, and scope for a greater variety of individual playstyle preferences.


    However given the nautical nature of the storyline, I was surprised that the deity Ondra is unavailable to priests.


    Moreover during character creation, to me it felt unintuitive that I could not move between different stages by clicking on the icons at the bottom of the screen (only on the “Next” button). Perhaps, partly this was because the mass of information accompanying the icons, and the white-on-dark colour scheme therof compared to the khaki on brown of the “Next”, drew my eyes to the wrong place on the screen.


    It is great to have the tips about particular attributes being recommended for the chosen class.


    I wonder whether it would be more logical to have character background right after character race, rather than following character class?


     


    Storytelling, cinematography, and music:


    Two things which grabbed me from the start in the Baldur’s Gate series, were the quote from Nietzsche (which introduced to me his work), and the use of dream sequences to introduce each chapter. This functioned rather like the introductory paragraph of an essay, establishing clearly the philosophical framework and theme for the story the player was about to experience. Consequently the whole story-arc just felt like it hung together better.


     


    The use of motifs from Maori or other Pacific Island native art to inform the user interface is a lovely touch and really adds to the game atmosphere!


    I absolutely adore the Art Nouveau-esque style used for Sun-In-Shadow (PoE1), the Engwithan Waystation (particularly the mosaics, PoE2), and elsewhere. I wish I could fill my real-world home with it! It reminded me of some of the elven art assets used in Shadows of Amn.


    I really like the art for the background to the main menu: Vertiginous mountainslopes clad in buildings right down to the water’s edge, a ship serenely sailing from port across a harbour tranquil as glass, and everywhere the lush verdure of tropical plantlife.


    It put me in mind of the phrase from Rime of the Ancient Mariner “upon a painted ocean”.


    In PoE1, the loading screen art was framed at the borders by 2 mighty trees, and below by broken stone ruins; to me this bespoke the forests and Engwithan ruins of the Dyrwood and Eir Glanfath in which the tale was set.


     


    Character development and voice-acting:


    I will always remember the amazing work done by the narrator in Baldur’s Gate, and the incredible David Warner as Jon Irenicus: For me, he made Irenicus a sympathetic, almost tragic villain. As that series did in so many other ways, this set the standard of what I hope to find in an RPG.


    I applaud the casting of the PoE narrator: For me, his accent is sufficiently understated for it to work well! For me, games in which there is a preponderance of strongly (southern?) American-accented voice-acting invariably break immersion and lead to me turning off the sound of voices.


    As the PoE team has indeed done, partly this may be surmounted by having a variety of real-world accented voice actors.


    I believe that crafting the script of dialogue and narration is an artform, and so is the correct interpretation of these by voice actors. When everything works, the effect should be that of listening to the musical dialogues implicit in a Beethoven symphony or Bach fugue.


     


    NPC’s whom I thought particularly well both acted and written in PoE1 and WM included Iovara, Thaos, Kana, Eder, Aloth, Llengarth,


    Sometimes it was a matter of interpretation with which I disagreed: For example, to me Lady Webb sounded like a sweet grandmother, which I felt did a disservice to her Machiavellian capabilities and gimlet intellect. It was the difference between a Marple-type character played by Geraldine McEwan or Anna Massey, versus one played by Julia McKenzie. Likewise the “snarkiness” of the Devil of Caroc I felt incongruent with both her backstory and the conclusion to her story. Mind you, I was surprised that having achieved her vengeance she was not becalmed by emptiness and loss of life life-purpose.


     


    I remain extremely annoyed and frustrated by the reduced party size: A huge variety of party member responses to the environment and plot is one of my chief delights, closely followed by a large number of diverse interactions between party members. In both the BG and NWN series I modded my game to enable the maximum number of NPC’s, and enjoyed imagining scenarios by which (for example) the noble paladin and “evil” drow might surmount their differences and find common cause to assist the player character.


    Regarding party member interactions: In real life I am unable to have any romantic attachment due to severe health problems. It would just be irresponsible of me. This is a source of permanent deep sorrow. When there is a tastefully implemented, deep romance option in an RPG, it helps me feel a little of that companionship. I don’t mean sex scenes, which I think have been justifiably ridiculed in many instances.


     


    Music and cinematographic pacing:


    Possibly my ears tricked me, but it gladdened my heart to hear themes from shadows of Amn echoed in the PoE1 soundtrack: Thankyou!


    I thought that the music for Sun-In-Shadow was also some of the most evocative and apt in the game.


    Overall, the composition does a brilliant job of having unique themes (leit motifs) for each character, game area, and story theme, then weaving them together in counterpoint. My only challenge for the composer is to say: Please, more contrapunctus!


     


    The cinematic direction for both the final confrontation with Thaos, and the final confrontation with the Eyeless (WM2) I thought very well directed. Your team managed to incorporate lots of lore/ flashbacks which kept upping the tension and atmosphere, without sacrificing any gameplay or responsiveness. I’ve seen this (sacrifice of dramatic pacing in order to include dramatic content) happen in other games where I really care about the characters involved, and it always breaks my heart. So well done for managing to achieve this without dropping the pace!


    However, I do wonder if the leadup to a final confrontation could have been better served by a different musical score than the slow, wonderfully atmospheric (“lost grandeur”) “Sun-In-Shadow” theme. Maybe something more in the style of Solusek Ro’s Tower raid (Rob King, Everquest 1), or Apollo’s Palace (Marios Aristopoulos, Apotheon). I am no musician, but broadly these are characterised by a sense of progressively increasing tempo (even using auditory illusion?), the constant repetition of short phrases with variations, and soaring over that a sweeping elegiac theme that provides a sense of destiny impelling the listener forwards.


    I also thought it a pity that we saw all the dead people but did not understand the meaning until after Thaos was defeated: During that final approach, maybe we could have seen disjoint flashbacks of them being sacrificed? Without the context we learn after defeating Thaos, this could have added to the mystery and the accelerating sense of peril. I am very tolerant of lore and can’t ever get enough. But perhaps this would have been too much lore for some players, or slowed the pace. I don’t know.


     


    World Building:


    For me, the use of phrases in other languages such as “per complancanet” really helps to add a feeling of diverse ethnic groups within the world. Having definitions popup over them during conversation is great, because it maximises the ethnic effect while reducing the concomitant occlusion of meaning (!).


     


    The ocean seems very desolate and empty, as do the land masses. There could be MANY more islands, and far more content on each eg Ursula LeGuin’s “Earthsea” Archipelago. Maybe procedural generation could be used to better convey a sense of being surrounded by steaming, claustrophobic jungle?


     


    Deadfire being set in the tropics, I do wonder at the apparent absence of coral reefs and atolls. Some truly spectacular real-world places involve underwater caves filled with multicoloured tropical marine life glowing like jewels, or swimming underwater through cave systems (cenote’s).


    I also wonder at the apparent absence of volcanic island chains, which are such a feature of the Pacific Ocean in our own world. Does Eora possess plate tectonics? Having a magnetic field (hence a convective geodynamo) I would have thought tectonic plates likely. In brief and very simply (I am not a geologist!): (1) Where plates converge, there are likely to be mountain chains (eg Andes) with volcanic island chains in the subduction zone, (2) where plates diverge there are trenches with volcanic activity, and (3) where plates shear, earthquakes occur along faultlines.


     


    In the beta, I noted that the arrangement of mountains, plains and forest seemed a little arbitrary. Again, very simply and briefly (I am not a climatologist!): Forests grow in regions of high rainfall, so on the side of mountain ranges that faces the prevailing winds/ weather systems. The mountains block the rain, so on the other side is drier, hence plains. Which begs the question: What are the prevailing weather systems in the Deadfire Archipelago?


     


    Although I could be wrong, I suspect that any level design topology could map to one that accounts for (i) prevailing winds and (ii) plate tectonics. It is going in the other direction that might not work.


     


    Eoran Theogony:


    I preface these remarks by quoting from William Blake’s “Marriage of Heaven and Hell” lines 96-101 (http://www.bartleby.com/235/253.html), as to me it seems to summarise what we learnt about the gods of Eora in PoE1, thus serving as point from which to continue.


    “The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged and numerous senses could perceive.


    And particularly they studied the Genius of each city and country, placing it under its Mental Deity;


      Till a System was formed, which some took advantage of, and enslav’d the vulgar by attempting to realise or abstract the Mental Deities from their objects—thus began Priesthood;


      Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.


      And at length they pronounc’d that the Gods had order’d such things.


      Thus men forgot that All Deities reside in the Human breast.”


    While I applaud the *contemporary realism* and intellectual depth of the PoE divine pantheon, I do feel nostalgic for simple “good guy” dynamics such as for example that Sir Keldorn had for Torm (Shadows of Amn), or Cadderly had with Deneir (RA Salvatore’s Cleric Quintet). Having the “good” god Eothas behave in a manner which seemed out of character to some of his adherents (including myself), raised the whole issue of deity: worshipper relationships (Steven Erikson addresses this well in his Malazan Chronicles). How much of the power of a deity stems from their adherents, so to what extent are they “slaves” to their worshippers? What happens when a deity refuses to behave according to the expectations of their followers? As quoted by Stephen Donaldson, SP Somtow said something like “Fantasy is the only legitimate means for religious inquiry”. All of which I found very thought-provoking.


    Personally I find more aesthetically pleasing the ideas set forth by Macros (RE Feist’s “Rage of a Demon King”), whereby humans unknowingly created deities by worship (or “paying attention to”) Platonic Ideals. According to this system some of the power of some deities (but not all) is a direct reflection of how many worshippers they have. As Nakor subsequently expounded in the same book, while the manifestation of an Ideal as a deity may be local to a particular world, the Ideal itself of course may be universal.


    Within the portfolio of each Eoran deity they are comprehensive and self-consistent, but I have some concerns regarding the constructed pantheon as a whole. The Engwithans may have been “high minded”, but from my perspective I think their choice of Ideals upon which to confer divinity rather arbitrary, with lots of overlaps and gaps between divine portfolios. I suggest a system structurally similar to Aristotelian elements or (for example) MBTI or Enneagram psychological types, might have better “covered all bases”. (I have the same issues with the structure of Tides in Torment: Numenera)


     


    In the real world, extreme proponents of both religious and humanist persuasions incline to ranting. I think it crucial that as your team explores ideas, it is important for the story and characters to avoid both bias and polemics- unless to illustrate the problems associated with such. Specifically, I feel that in PoE1 there were occasions when Aloth and Durance each crossed the line into bigotry and bad taste.


     


    In real life, *for me* (as a scientist), one point of worshipping a divinity is that they stand outside reality as humans are capable of comprehending or experiencing it. Hence there is never any possible way that we (or the Engwithans) could determine whether god(s) exist. Moreover, if a divinity exists as the animus of a Platonic Ideal, then in their natural state they would be largely incomprehensibly alien to human thought. If humans “create” a god by worshipping such an animus, then any anthropomorphic character of that deity could arise as a result of that relationship.


    What if some Eoran “gods” such as I have described actually exist in Eora but the Engwithans could not detect them? What if there is some overlap in portfolio between the Engwithan gods and these Animate Ideals? Maybe some blending or merger might occur?


     


    Cosmetic things:


    Personally I emphatically dislike the “smoking pipe” animated icon for something as personal as the “loadscreen waiting”: With apologies to JRRT, Elminster and many others, I find it difficult to dissociate smoking from the (for me) highly emotive topic of cancer. NPC’s smoking is fine; it is just the entirely individual question of where the line gets drawn.


    Personally I’d prefer an icon suggestive of the seafaring nature of the game- perhaps a sailing ship rocking on rolling waves?


     


    World Interaction:


    Combining the effects of statistics of a player with those of other party members in order to pass statistic checks is a fantastic idea. At this early stage I am not sure if it has been done, but some other ideas include (i) using the maximum value of a statistic across the entire party plus a factor contributed by other party members, and (ii) seeing if any other party members meet a particular attribute trait (eg White that Wends) rather than just the player. These 2 stratagems would further increase the diversity of checks which a player could pass, thus making feel more immersed in the world. It also reduces the need for multiple playthroughs, for which I lack both time and strength.


    It would be nice if we had an option/ opportunity to negotiate peacefully for the spore-coated grimoire when talking to the Delemgan at Toaku Biwha Trail north of Tikawara.


    Sometimes when mousing over an item that is compared to something already equipped, the 2 information panels overlap resulting in being unable to read either one.


     


    Game dynamics:


    When sneaking, the red visual indicator of NPC alertness/ detection area is a great addition!


     


    In the Task “Plucked Fruit”, I thought it might have been nice if we could convince the tribe of the merits of harvesting seeds from the dried fruit, to ensure there were future harvests.


    In a similar vein, I was very happy that there was an opportunity to send the lagufaeth hatchlings back home without alienating the villagers!


     


    I have never liked the inclusion of firearms or gunpowder in ostensibly fantasy games, and tend to avoid playing those that contain it. In my view it is (historically and technologically) a very short step from including guns to having a completely real-world contemporary technological level. I just have a passionate aversion to realworld firearms, and this spills over into games.


    There is also the aspect of all the problems that can arise from the exercise of “unearned power”.


    Torment:ToN dealt with this in what I thought was an effective manner by having weapons similar to firearms be “magical” relics from an advanced civilisation (“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” Arthur C Clarke)


     


    Hitting the <tab> key does not highlight some lootable corpses eg sand grubs, which is annoying.


     


    The changes in game mechanics and interface from PoE1 to the PoE2 beta have really confused, frustrated and alienated me. For example, the tiny icons of the inventory view with its small icons and boxes makes it difficult to see things. Having the stash always show open on the same screen contributes to the display being very crowded and making it difficult to find what I am looking for. Not showing the inventories of all party members at a glance (which PoE1 did), makes it hard to see what different companions have on hand. Likewise, I find it very frustrating to have equipped weapons hiding elsewhere on the screen and not in the same area as the armour equipped.


    A difference from PoE I: I feel very confused that my wizard’s grimoire has spells in it which I have yet to learn, and very frustrated that I cannot learn new spells from the grimoire of the NPC wizard in my party.


    I also find it really confusing the change from crushing/ piercing/ slashing etc weapon types and damage resistances in PoE 1: They made combat a lot more realistic and thought-provoking.


    One positive thing that has been introduced is the ability to “copy” a currently wielded weapon or shield from one slot to another: Thankyou!


    In summary: I STRONGLY prefer the PoE1 design! If it is not broken, please don’t try to fix it: Energy could have been better spent on things which would benefit more.


     


    Further suggestions:


    One of the most fun aspects of Shadows of Amn for me was the sophisticated mage vs mage combat spells: Although PoE does have some scope for this, the number of protective spells and counterspells remains relatively small. It would be great fun if this were expanded, and spells overall more systematically organised.


    An aspect of magecraft included in some other games which is good fun is things such as casting grease, then setting it on fire, alternating ice/ flame to shatter stone, ice followed by flame to create steam, which lightning can then electrify, and so on.


    Another aspect of Shadows of Amn I recall with nostalgia is the ability to set multiple traps prior to triggering (for example) a Demi-liche spawn."


    • Like 2
  5. Happy Holidays!!! 

     

    Obsidian will be CLOSED  :aiee: starting tonight 12/22, returning 1/2 morning. I'll be popping in on the forums here and there but our coverage will be very light. We apologize for patching and running, but figured it was better to give it sooner rather than later.

     

    Hopefully all you merrymaking gamers have a great holiday,

     

    - SKing

    • Like 7
  6. Hey you bunch of affable gamers,

     

    Our update is now live! To gain access to the Backer Beta, visit this (Forum Link) for step by step instructions. This is a Beta and will most definitely contain a few issues. Please report any issues you find here (Forum Link). 

     

    Backer Beta Builds where and when?

    Mac: Steam and GoG are live now

    Win: Steam and GoG are live now

    Linux: Steam and GoG are live now

     

    We have some pretty hefty patch notes for you. Below you will find; New Content, System Changes, Bug Fixes, and Known Issues.

     

    NEW CONTENT

    Prepatch (Build 4) saves are not compatible and will not be available in the Save/Load Menu with this patch (Build 21). We are still ironing out some save/load issues on our end and don't want you all to run into unnecessary issues.

     

    A new uncharted Island - A new island has been added to the world map.

     

    Custom Party AI - Our complete AI system will be available. This system still has some rough edges but should be functional. Hit it and tell us what you think.

     

    Mac/Linux versions both on GoG and Steam - These builds are very 'fresh' with many unexplored pieces. We would love some feedback/bugs on these.

     

    Walk Toggle - The long awaited walk toggle has been added. RP your hearts out J

     

    SYSTEM CHANGES

    We listened closely to all of your feedback over the past month, and are rolling out some changes to improve gameplay.

     

    Injuries:

    Updated Injuries so that only some Injury types will reduce Max Health. When they do, they'll reduce it by 15%, rather than 25%. Players will still die when gaining their 4th Injury, even if none of the Injuries they have reduce MaxHealth.

     

    Here are the Injuries that affect MaxHealth:

    • Fatigued
    • Frail
    • Major Injury
    • Critical Injury
    • Maimed
    • Severe Wound

    Here are the Injuries that don't:

    • Acute Rash
    • Bruised Ribs
    • Concussion
    • Frostbite
    • Burned
    • Smashed Hands
    • Sprained Wrist
    • Swollen Eye
    • System Shock
    • Twisted Ankle
    • Wrenched Knee
    • Wrenched Shoulder

    Interrupt:

    Modified a couple of abilities whose primary purpose is to interrupt targets, so that they will Interrupt on Graze or better, rather than Hit or better. This affects the following abilities:

    • Fighter: Knockdown and Mule Kick
    • Monk: Force of Anguish, Wave of Force, and Skyward Kick
    • Ranger: Concussive Shot and Concussive Tranquilizer
    • Rogue: Sap and Perplexing Sap

    Other interrupt abilities `either always hit, or applied an Affliction and so already got a benefit for a

    Graze. They still require the character to have Grazes from another source (Fighter Confident Aim, Aware Inspiration, etc.)

     

    Movement:

    Reducing movement speeds to 85% of their previous amount.

     

    Attributes:

    In Pillars 1 and Deadfire (now), the Might and Resolve attributes affect the following:

    • Might - All Damage, All Healing, Fortitude Defense
    • Resolve - Concentration (Pillars 1 only), Deflection Defense, Will Defense

    Players have noted the following over the past few years:

    1. If you're a caster, there's often not much reason to invest in Resolve (especially in Deadfire).
    2. From a *~ roleplaying ~* perspective, it feels weird to have muscley wizards casting high damage fireballs because they can bench 350 lbs.

    So we are making these changes for the next Backer Beta build:

    • Strength - All Weapon Damage, Fortitude Defense
    • Resolve - All Healing, All Spell Damage, Deflection Defense, Will Defense

    For ease of use, "Weapon Damage" means anything that's an equipped weapon, from a sword to a bow to a gun to Kalakoth's Minor Blights.  This also means there's a benefit to making a high-Strength wizard (i.e., being a psycho melee "gish" wizard).

     

    Spells:

    Slow cast spells will use the Fast (2s base) recovery time instead of Average (3s base). The Very Slow cast spells (typically summons) will now use the Very Fast (1s base) recovery time.

     

    Penetration:

    Modified the Penetration system slightly, along with how Penetration displays in the mouse-over tooltip in combat.

     

    When your Penetration is below the target's Armor, there is now a gradual reduction in damage. The current values are (and may be tweaked as we play with them a bit):

    • -1 Pen = 75% Damage
    • -2 Pen = 50% Damage
    • -3 or more Pen = 25% Damage

    It's still 100% damage up until you are at double Pen, and then 130% damage from there.

     

    Along with this change, Penetration will now ONLY display on the combat tooltip when you are either BELOW Pen, or you don't yet know the target's Armor value for the damage type you'll deal.

     

    Attack Speed:

    Updated the attack speed of most 1H weapons to use an Average (3s) recovery time, instead of Fast (previously 1s). Fast recovery times are now 2s, rather than 1s. The overall result of these changes is that combat will have a slower pace as recovery times for 1H weapons is increased.

     

    Here are the 1H weapons that will have a Fast (2s) recovery time. All other 1H weapons are Average recovery:

    • Stiletto
    • Hatchet
    • Dagger
    • Rapier
    • Club
    • Flail
    • Monk Fists

    As part of this change, we also looked at the overall damage ranges of weapons, with the goal of making 2H weapons a viable choice compared to 1H weapons.

     

    Recovery:

    Base recovery time for a Slow recovery attack is now 4s, instead of 5s. Very slow is now 7s instead of 8s.

     

    More importantly, we updated the recovery penalty from armor, as follows:

    • 20%: Light Armor (Leather, Hide, Padded)
    • 35%: Medium Armor (Scale, Breastplate, Mail)
    • 55%: Heavy Armor (Brigandine, Plate)

    Graze:

    All attacks can inherently Graze. We updated the Aware Inspiration to grant 50% Graze to Hit conversion, and fighter Confident Aim also grants 50% Graze to Hit (meaning Fighters who have both will hit a lot more). Grazing will reduce damage and status effect / affliction duration by 50%. We might consider having graze downgrade Tier 3 & Tier 2 afflictions, like an inherent Resistance.

     

    Rogue:

    • Rogue Escape ability. It now costs 1 Guile to use (previously it was 2). It is no longer removed when you choose Shadow Step/Shadowing Beyond, but it is a requirement in order to gain either of those abilities.

    Ranger:

    • Ranger abilities Wounding Shot, Accurate Wounding Shot, Hobbling Shot, Concussive Shot, Concussive Tranquilizer, and Stunning Shots will now work with melee weapon attacks.

    Priest:

    • Priests will now receive an automatic spell when they reach every new Power Level. For a single-class Priest, that's at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, and 19.
    • Updated Priests so that they no longer lose access to spells based on type. IE: Eothas Priests no longer lose access to Protection spells.

    Fighter:

    • Mule Kick is now a standalone ability, not a Knock Down upgrade. It requires Knock Down to learn, but doesn't replace it. It now does bonus damage and will Disorient the target, and will cost 3 points to use.

    Ranger:

    • Wounding Shot - Since Wounding Shot and its upgrades were reduced to 1 point, tuned down the bonus Raw damage a bit.
    • Marked Prey - As with Sworn Enemy, Marked Prey will now work correctly w/ ranged & AoE attacks.

    Paladin:

    • Paladin Orders like Priests, players were required to pick a Paladin Order during character creation. We've removed the drawbacks from picking the various Orders. 
    • Lay on Hands -Greater Lay on Hands and Hands of Light are no longer upgrades to Lay on Hands. They require Lay on Hands, but do not replace it. Their effects remain the same.
    • Sworn Enemy - has been updated to work correctly with ranged & AoE attacks

    BUG FIXES

    Thanks to all you wonderful gamers providing tons of feedback/bugs. We spent this past month addressing as many of it as we could; here are some of the highlights.

     

    General Issues:

    • (FIXED) Mild to severe drop in frame rate on first load. We are still in the process of optimizing our game.
    • (FIXED) Some machines may crash on a black screen on first 'New Game'
    • (FIXED) A few different creatures (Imp, Beetle, etc..) are missing audio
    • (FIXED) Some NPCs will have abilities that activate after each transition
    • (FIXED) Party will spawn halfway below the ground after destroying the Adra Pillar in Poko Kohara

    Class Specific:

    • (FIXED) Chanter phrase count is not updating after Save/Load
    • (FIXED) Multiclass Barbarian/Priest (Shaman) lose passives
    • (FIXED) Wizard/Druid/Priest 'aggressive' AI preset will mainly auto attack
    • (FIXED) Mercenary Wizard is currently listed as a dwarf and gains 'Hale and Hardy' but visually is a Human

    UI:

    • (FIXED) Some menus are cut off in certain resolutions
    • (FIXED) All tooltips regarding Action Speed, Recovery Time, and Reload Time are incorrect (Don't trust them)
    • (FIXED) HUD elements may flicker/phase out of existence after a save/load cycle
    • (FIXED) Adra Pillar in Poko Kohara disappears after Save/Load
    • (FIXED) Player character portrait doesn't fill red to show damage after Save/Load 
    • (FIXED) Loading Error that kicks to the Main Menu transitioning after Save/Load

    Spells and Abilities: 

    • (FIXED) Spell Levels in Ability Trees and Grimoires do not match
    • (FIXED) Bull's Will Passive can be obtained twice for Multiclass Players

    Miscellaneous:

    • (FIXED) Off screen Character Position Portraits all display the 5th slot party member
    • (FIXED) Animation controller issue with Blights and Spores. If you Knock Down/Up either of these enemies they will be put into a bad state and combat will not end.
    • (FIXED) Players can obtain infinite money or debt by buying hammer and chisels from Vektor

    Combat:

    • (FIXED) Mule Kick makes enemies untargettable and stuck in combat
    • (FIXED) Enemies sometimes duplicate on save/load
    • (FIXED) Weapon Recovery speeds are inconsistent
    • (FIXED) Skeleton Sorcerers attack themselves in Poko Kohara
    • (FIXED) Weapon Focus Barbarian ability is combat only (Currently being worked on)
    • (FIXED) Kith (humanoid) enemies will sometimes attack themselves

    KNOWN ISSUES IN THE CURRENT BACKER BETA

    These issues are still a priority for us, but there is only so much time in a day and we didn't want to keep you all waiting any longer.

     

    All Platforms:

    • Mercenary Priest level up summary has much larger text than other characters
    • Items can be duplicated in rest menu
    • 'Broodmother's Fury' Loading an autosave before starting the quest will block the quest from turn in at end
    • Some machines may crash when quitting to the Main Menu from within the game
    • The Game doesn't boot in native resolution after installation
    • Ranger 'Ghostheart' summoned spirit companions will sometimes blend into the background
    • Chanter will not have audio for their abilities (Chants or invocations)

    Linux:

    • Loading a save outside of Tikawara and returning to Tikawara will open Character Creation
    • Encounter between Ravine and Tikawara reappears
    • New Game takes forever to launch character creation

    Mac:

    • Crash when loading an encounter autosave from a different scene
    • New Game takes forever to launch character creation
    • Like 22
  7. Hey you bunch of faithful gamers,

     

    We decided to slip one more patch in! The patch will be available on the Beta Branch of Steam for a few days. Please jump in and let us know what you think. The patch will go live soon after that.

     

    Patch contains;

     

    - Fixed an issue with the Company Captain's Cap confusing party members when they cast a buff/heal spell.

     

    - Realized we went a little overboard on the Deadfire Uniforms. We knocked the defenses they granted from +20 to +9.

     

    - Added optional analytics. This is just simple data collection (where parties wipe, which classes players choose, etc....). A pop up will trigger as soon as you launch the game after patching, asking 'would you like to enable analytics.' We'd love it if everyone did, but feel free to just click 'no' and forget it ever happened. 

     

    So, how do I get started?

    It's actually pretty easy.

    1. Completely quit out of the Steam client.
    2. Restart the Steam client and navigate to the Library tab.
    3. Right-click on the Pillars of Eternity entry and click on Properties.
    4. pe-beta-properties.jpg
    5. Navigate to the Betas tab in the Properties menu.
    6. Enter in the code "BETAPASSWORD" (remove quotes) and click on the Check Code button. pe-beta-check-code.jpg
       
    7. Click on the dropdown list and select the "beta" branch. Once selected, close out of the Properties menu.pe-beta-selection.jpg
       
    8. You should notice that your Pillars of Eternity game will now have "[beta]" after it. This means that your game is in the beta branch. Steam should queue an update for this branch.
    9. You can now play the new beta branch of the game.
    10. If you would like to switch your branch back to normal follow steps 3 and 4 to get back to the Beta tab in the Properties menu, then choose "NONE" as your branch. This should revert you back to the release version of the game.

     

    Thank you to all of the folks that decide to play the patch beta and help report issues. Your help is invaluable and we really appreciate your dedication.

    • Like 8
  8. Hey you bunch of elevated gamers,

     

    First, I am loving these breakdowns. I always like seeing 'smarter' people than myself dive into our systems. I wanted to ask you if you have taken into account that Perception helps all attacks, while Might only helps damage attacks. It feels correct that Might should boost DPS more than Perception just because Perception also effects CC spells that do not do damage. Where as Might does nothing to help CC attacks. You seem to have a better grasp on the number than myself. I only ask because I didn't see you point to it in any of your breakdowns.

     

    I got your backs

    -SKing

    • Like 1
  9. Hey you bunch of inquisitive gamers,

     

    The current design for pistol/sword attacks;

     

    (Both situations should get the 20% buff from dual weapon stance)

    While in Melee - Characters will only use the Sword

    While at Range - Characters will stay at range and only shoot

     

    This of course can/may change. Give it some love, let us know how it feels. Getting the 'right' feel on this one is definitely on our mind and we are looking for any tweaks we can make.

     

    I got your backs

    -SKing

    • Like 4
  10. Straight from the database.

     

    Roby Atadero added a comment - 17/Nov/17 3:36 PM

    I addressed the Main Menu and CC issues. The ability bar positioning has not been addressed.

     

    Brian Macintosh added a comment - 4 days ago

    CL#: 135762 by bmacintosh at 2017/11/30 15:20:59

    Description:

    Fixed some resolution scaling problems with the ability bar.

     

    Steven King added a comment - 5 minutes ago

    Fix verified as of build 869. 21:9 2560x1080 @59 Hz is displaying properly.

    • Like 3
  11. Hey (you bunch of gregarious) gamers,

     

    Obsidian will be shut down starting tomorrow (11/22) until next Monday (11/27) for Thanksgiving. We will be absent from the forums/support until then, sorry for the inconvenience.

     

    I wish all our American fans a happy Thanksgiving and I apologize to everyone else for our strange foreign ways. 

    - SKing

     

     

     

     

    • Like 2
  12. Hey (you bunch of beautiful gamers),

     

    We have now enabled Cloud saves on Steam for the Backer Beta. Only lightly tested, so use with caution. (back up your saves!)

     

    I got your backs,

    - SKing

     

    P.S. Not sure if GoG Galaxy has this feature, I will look into it tomorrow for all your GoGers. Is it cool if I call you GoGers from now on?

  13. Alrighty gamers,

     

    I got the bug nailed down 'more or less' and everything we need (thanks to everyone who posted.) There is a bug in the database and I've informed the devs. We'll probably have to wait until at least tomorrow to hear back, sorry I can't give a a better time period. Hopefully we will have this resolved soon.

     

    I'll check back in tomorrow/Monday and poke some devs

    - Sking

    • Like 3
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