Risewild

The thing is that it is not just "sneaking" mode, it is called "scouting" mode which implies that it is more focused on searching and exploring than keeping oneself hidden. I understand that it is frustrating for some people because it takes more time than just run around and find everything, but let's be honest if someone hides a diamond in a hole on the ground and then makes it look like nothing got disturbed, one doesn't notice it there while running near it. One would have to be actively looking for something suspicious, and that means move slower. Also let's be honest, the hidden things are usually just gems, potions, ingredients and other not really rare or valuable things with a few exceptions and even those exceptions are not powerful items or anything that I would lose sleep for not getting. Again I say, just use some movement speed potion or when you find it equip your scout with some boots of movement, even while in scouting mode he/she will move at the same speed as not in scout mode. Use the tools that the game offers to overcome the limitations it also imposes on you, if one enemy has a very strong defense against slashing and you deal almost no damage to it because all of your party uses slashing weapons, will you come by and say it is bad game design or will you equip a different damage type weapon and deal with it easier? The maps are not that big at all, if one can't spend a few minutes more searching a few maps then do not do it, just continue playing the game, you will not need whatever it is hiding in there to beat the game or even just to make you stronger. IIRC in Baldur's gate games if one would use the sneak and detect secret doors skills at the same time, the character would move so slow it would take almost 20 minutes just to explore a bit of the map even more if that character was encumbered. I am so grateful that in PoE that does not happen. PS: Use boots of speed and potions of speed and fast mode!

I believe that people usually think about "I will play solo and reach the level cap really fast and then it gets boring.", which is a valid thought for playing solo. But this game was announced as a old-school kind of RPG game, and as old IE games it is made to be played with a party, it is possible to play solo but the game was made to be a party game, and has a level cap shorter than the XP awarded ingame because it allows one to play with all the vanilla NPC's and also all the possible player made NPC's and be able to level ALL of those to the top level. Imagine if I play the game following all the NPC's stories and beat them all and level them all to level 12, then I decide to dump them all and create new characters, while I can create higher level characters I would still need xp to level this custom party and reach the level cap, but then I already used up all of the game xp and so this new NPC's wouldn't be able to reach the level cap. Also this level cap definitely "hints" that in the future there will be at least one expansion (notice the use of the word Expansion and not DLC, if you are old-school you know the difference ) for this game that will push the maximum level and (probably) allows to continue playing with your old character. Just a final note, old-school rpg systems were all about having a very rigorous set of rules and always trying to be balanced, if anything would be found unbalanced then new rules would come by and "patch" the unbalanced part. That is why old rpg's games were obscure and always associated with nerds and geeks back in the day, because they were so complex and rigorous most people wouldn't understand or know how to play them. "Modern" day rpg games are all about spreading to the highest number of consumers possible and so they make them very basic to learn and play, most players this days wouldn't buy a complex and complicated game because it would get bored, frustrated and annoyed if he/she would have to think on how to create and/or level up their characters if there is more to do than just click on a box with a few options (Hit Harder, Be Tougher, Cast New Shiny Spell, etc.). Pillars of Eternity is a welcome breath of fresh air from all the "new" rpg games that came out the last ten years (there are some exceptions that are playable or even good, but even those are not as great as the really old classics). Sorry I suffer from some mental issues and tend to write too much when I post and that is why I avoid forums usually, so I am sorry if anyone gets offended by my big complaining sounding (which is only my opinion, I am not trying to bash anyone) post.

I finished this game two days ago, even with bugs I found it great and had a lot of fun. I was thinking on start a new playthrough and now this patch appears, this will make my second playthrough even better than I thought, thanks Obsidian for your hard work at fixing and balancing this awesome game.

I forgot to mention that I also use the Fast Mode (Default Key "D") which makes it really easy to explore an entire map in a very short time.

If I want to find everything on a map I just equip (I am playing with a rogue) some boots that give +3 movement speed or drank a potion that does the same (before I found the boots) and my character moves at the same speed as if he wasn't sneaking... the rest of the party can follow at slower speed or just wait somewhere, if there is enemies I just walk a bit back, quit sneak mode and move my entire party there fast, the maps are not that big so it takes no time at all to search them doing this .

I will say a few things I think could be improved in PoE, so I guess it fits more as an expansion than a sequel. The Stronghold is awesome but I think some things could make it even better: Be able to find more people to join the Stronghold ( *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* At the moment I only found one Ogre I managed to convince to join my Stronghold, he is standing guard right outside my Keep , although I would have preferred that he wouldn't count for the limit of how many mercenaries/soldiers I can hire, after all I invited him to join my keep, see next point). Have special Soldiers/Mercenaries or even other jobs (like Animancer, Gardener, Animal Keeper, Cook/Servant/Groundskeeper/other Staff) that join our Stronghold if we invite them and do not count for the limit of mercs/soldiers we hire, but we still have to pay them. After we repair all of the buildings available, give the option to build new things/buildings depending on some reputations/quests the player has/completed. An option to leave Pets in the Stronghold and they would appear walking around on the grounds (*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* maybe a fence to keep Piglets, the Zombie Cat could walk around in the Dungeon, the Animat in the Lab, Cats and Dogs walking around in some interiors and outside, etc.) Have more options for prisoners (I don't really know what we can do with the prisoners except *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* wait for someone to give us 700 coppers to free them), maybe have some prisoners after a while trying to buy their freedom by telling the player where he/she can find special hidden caches with special treasure, or unlock new small locations to explore with potential treasure and stuff like that, or wanting to join the Stronghold as staff for no salary (then they could try to escape and depending on the Stronghold's security be successful or fail). This one is more of a personal nitpick than a real improvement, but making the weapon merchant set shop in the right building, for some reason the merchant that sells traps is inside the shop that has the anvils and crates of weapons and shields outside, while the weapon merchant is inside a shop with wood planks and other not weapon related things outside of it. Another personal nitpick, make the merchants in the Stronghold not greet the player with the voice "Well met stranger!"... We are the lord of that Stronghold, it sounds a bit immersion breaking when they call us "stranger"... Yet another personal nitpick, give the General Goods Merchant an actual Stall outside of the Keep, not in it's treasury. Now I will say what I would like to see in PoE that is not Stronghold related: Improve Pets in some way that makes them different in other ways besides the name and image (they could give a small different bonus depending on which pet the player has equipped, or dogs could help the player find people they have a quest to find ex: Find this guy hiding in the catacombs, so we go to the catacombs and our dog could "bark" if we were going the right way to find that guy or something, maybe dogs could also "bark" if there was a trap nearby, piglets could find random plants, etc). I love the pets and would like to see them being something more than just a little thing walking around the main character. Have some people that let the player party rest in their house/barn/whatever for free and without any bonuses if we helped them in the past. A button to stop combat (I had a bug where a ranger animal companion was KO and the battle ended and the animal was still KO and didn't let me save saying I couldn't save while in battle, luckily it let me change map and the animal return to normal. Other time I had a bug where my main character was just standing and I couldn't move him or make him do anything at all, and it was still in combat mode after I killed all the enemies on the entire map and prevented me from saving, resting and change maps because it said I was still in battle... I fixed it by using Edér and knock my main character down with the fighter ability and then he got up and it ended the combat mode ). Like other people said, Mod support and modding tools (this one is big for me, I am still modding for FNV and part of a team working on a big project for FNV too). Like someone else said before, spells and abilities that can be used outside of combat. Let the player move outside of the map without moving to a corner/end of the map in some places (like the Stronghold, big cities and some maps after they are totally explored and no enemies left). Random Encounters while travelling ("You have been waylaid by enemies and must defend yourself" style). Would be nice to have Companions of all available classes so we could see how those classes work without have to make a new character of that class and having more followers is always a plus. Although I imagine that making so many well fleshed NPC's with their history and quests would be huge effort. More equipment with unique abilities (abilities we are not able to enchant ourselves). Make other equipment enchantable (not only weapons and armor). I think someone else already mentioned better traps and be able to place more than one, a good way of making better traps and increase the number of traps one can place could be related to the mechanics skill, the higher the skill the better and more traps one can place. Be able to cast seal spells and not remove the normal placed trap my rogue placed nearby. I am tired and I will stop now, I can't think of any other things, but I might write a few more later if I think of them.