amazeing4art

One area of the Pillars game that I didn't think worked as well as it could have was food. I have two suggestions to improve it. First... would it be possible to have a separate 'food' slot for each character? So everyone would have his or her own slot (like for boots, or the main character's pet, etc) that could only hold food. You could eat your food from the main screen as usual, whatever is in this slot would appear on the character's action bar. The reason I ask... the mechanics of eating food in Pillars were horrible I thought. Basically every time you wanted to eat, you took some other item out of your quick slots (like a healing potion) then you went back to main screen and ate your food, then you went back to inventory and put the healing potion back. Over and over, for every character, every time you ate. It was incredibly cumbersome I thought, needlessly cumbersome. Second... I would really love for food to be more realistic and useful... right now it is a buff that lasts only 300 seconds, and you eat a giant chicken pie two seconds before fighting a dragon?? Seriously? Do you see boxers or UFC guys cramming themselves with three pounds of pot roast 30 seconds before a fight? Did Gandalf gorge on a giant plate of stew 30 seconds before fighting the Balrog? no... he didnt. That would be silly.... but more importantly, it seriously interferes with the flow of the adventure. We already have tons of quick slot items that can only be used in combat (potions, scrolls, summoning items, etc). The way food currently works it essentially means it is really the same thing -- its just another combat buff, because it does not last too long once combat ends. Maybe you get one more group of trash mobs with the buff. Or maybe not. So its really just another combat buff, but with cumbersome pre-fight buffing mechanics. So... why not make food buffs more long-lasting (and perhaps a little less strong). If you eat breakfast you feel better for 4 hours, right? We could have a four hour food buff that lasts all morning, wouldn't that be better in so many ways? There could also be a negative buff from being hungry too and not eating for days, which might fit in well with the new idea of injuries being the mechanic that drives the party to need to rest. 'Hunger' (something like -2 all stats or whatever, if you have not eaten for 24 hours or something) could be another form of injury, a self-inflicted injury because you ran out of food Perhaps survival skill could reduce the hunger penalty, because that character can forage just enough to help themselves. Those are my suggestions!

Actually if I could make a feature request tied to party size in this thread... would it be possible, as part of the difficulty settings, to be able to limit the party size to a smaller group that 5 for a play through? Maybe this has been asked for already. On several playthroughs on Pillars I decided things like ... "I am going to try with only three characters"... I did that, then I did it with 2 characters. But I was constantly having to decide NOT to add more characters for all kinds of special encounters. Things like for companion quests, or tougher fights where I wanted another tank, or just temporarily, etc. Having a party-size limit setting would be really excellent I think, it would add a whole new dimension to the difficulty level dynamics. And it would make a three or two character or solo playthrough seem so much more realistic (and perhaps more trackable by achievements too).

I totally support the change to 5 characters. It will increase replayability, it will reduce party micromanagement needs during fights, and it will declutter party movement during combat. And it will help with inventory management and equipment overflow and gearing choices. I have read people's posts in favor of keeping it 6 but I think they can't really know what they will want until they actually see and play with 5. Only the devs are in a position to be able to compare the benefits of 5 vs. 6 characters right now. They did an awesome job with Pillars and the expansions, lets trust them about this. You may find that the devs are very good at their job, which (to paraphrase Steve Jobs) really is to give players what they don't know they want yet. Also there is something a little magical about odd numbers for social groups... 3 people and 5 people are better than 4 or 6 in the real world if you are getting together with your friends. An odd number also is better for any kind of decision making in meetings. All these things carry over subconsciously into a game world I think. There is research that shows that odd-number groups of people have advantages, such as https://www.fastcompany.com/1193130/could-your-team-be-more-effective-odd-man-out

And here is a Player.log file (on Dropbox), taken from the game right after I exited Temple of Woedica for First Fires, and get the message "The Steward of Caed Nua has received a letter..." for the first time. https://www.dropbox.com/s/etrvpnor7d12thm/Player.log?dl=0

OK here is a saved game file (via Dropbox) that clearly demonstrates the game-killing bug. https://www.dropbox.com/s/09ffqxw6gp77hf0/7f1d87d3606e42b198bbec4d5c4bb250%2012849228%20TempleofWoedica.savegame?dl=0 This save starts right before entering the final circular room in the Temple of Woedeca. So, send only the main character into the room (she has the hood equipped), answer the questions (we talked to the practicing assistant and know the answers)... then take the stairs back up to First Fires. Immediately you will get the message (for the first time) that "The Steward of Caed Nua has received a letter..." Travel to Caed Nua, talk to the Steward, and then you see the bug: you get nothing, no options to start White March. Nothing on the map. White March part I (and probably later, II) are just not accessible. Hope this helps fix the issue, its certainly been a pain for me! I think this entire playthrough was a wasted 20+ hours. Remember I am version 3.00 (not 3.01 quite yet). GOG Galaxy wants me to upload 9GB entire game (5 hours?) to apply your 11MB patch. Very unhappy about that. Thank you!

*edit* for a typo in above... to be clear... the white march zone does *not* appear on my map... the steward has no dialog options that will start the White March, even though I get the "letter for you" message every time I zone into any map area.

OK the game-breaking bug is that I cannot travel to the White March, since the zone does will appear on my map. At the same time, I get the message "The Steward of Caed Nua has received a letter for you" which appears *every time* I load into any map area. But the steward has no message for me, there are no dialog options that start the White March. I've talked to her a dozen times. Tried restarting, etc. All I can choose are: 1. What is the state of the keep? 2. I have some questions. 3. [leave] Farewell. If I select 2, then there is a subdialog where I can ask about Concelhaut and the Torn Bannermen... but its just for info, it doesn't reveal the map area. I played through White March part I before a few times, if I recall there should be a dialog that starts it (receiving the letter from the steward). I am on a mac, I got pillars and both White March 1 and 2 via GOG. In this game with bug I have beat the battle of Yenwood already. But the bug happened long before that, its been going on for 4 levels of my characters. I kept thinking something would correct itself. I have not installed any patch I am GoG 3.0 (BTW... GOG sucks the galaxy client wants to re-download 9GB full game to apply your latest patch its frikken annoying). I have screenshots if needed and could upload a game I guess too. The problem seemed to start around the time I was first interacting with the Marshall about the battle? I could go check old saves too. Thank you!