Ethics Gradient

Any decision can be seen as "purely financial" when it might require a thousand man-hours to implement. The Aurora Toolkit wasn't just a side project that was gifted to the community, it was the actual software BioWare used in-house to develop content. To design levels in Pillars, Obsidian uses Unity. The reasons why they haven't released a modding toolchain thus far likely include: 1. Letting modders natively recompile the game to create new areas would involve disclosing signifiant pieces of internal code and raw assets. 2. Building a tool to develop content offline would negate many of the benefits of using Unity in the first place. Unity is nice because you drag the assets into a project, write code, do stuff, and the SDK figures out how to best store and load things. Aside from the time spent developing such a tool, the game engine itself would need significant overhauls to pack and unpack external data like NWN's .mod, .hak, etc... files. Such an internal framework presently isn't there and would need to be added. 3. The OEI Tools node-based editor is probably a significant asset to the company. Unlike proposed mod toolkits, it is an actual piece of software they could release if they wanted to. Though, its use wouldn't necessarily be limited to Deadfire, and the software could be used to develop anything so long as it can read xml. I'd love to be able to mess around with it too, but I totally understand why they'd want to license it out. For the time being, let's wait for Beast of Winter and Deadfire 2.0. With the infusion of new content, it's possible that there may be some new vectors for modding that weren't present in the initial release.

On an related note, it's always a blast to hear Trent and Phil reminisce about the Aurora toolkit on their weekly Beamdog streams. They are very aware that it helped make NWN a success, but whenever someone asks if it will ever receive any significant enhancements, the response is approximately thirty seconds of laughter followed by "nope, next question." Whatever popular-twenty-years-ago SDK held it together really has no modern equivalent, and it would take a ground-up rewrite to make happen. Anyway, the idea of an "Aurora like" toolset for Deadfire probably sends chills down the spines of the poor programmers. Aside from developing such a magical tool, the magnitude of changes to accommodate things on the runtime-end must be fantastically intense. Considering all the subsystems a level touches, they'd either have to open-source significant pieces of Deadfire and let you compile the game in Unity like they do, or significantly up the mod support and develop some exciting new way to jam fan-made content into the game at runtime. So, circling back to Trent and Phil, feel free to ask Obsidian about mod tools on their next dev stream. I'm fairly certain the response will also be thirty seconds of laughter followed by some variation on "nope!" Edit: Just to clarify, I'm not against such tools being released, I'm just aware that they would take an awful lot of effort to make happen. Obsidian already uses Unity and their OEI Tools dialogue editor to do their bulk of their work. Asking for a mod toolset pretty much involves asking for a complex program to be written from scratch, and then altering much of the internal engine to accommodate such changes. Aurora worked because it was already an integrated piece of the NWN ecosystem at launch. Feels like a different story with Deadfire.

As a final reminder for GOG users before this all becomes thoroughly moot by the new Berath's Blessing changes, <Check out this post> Follow the instructions to drop a single file into your Deadfire install, and GOG users will be granted the Scavenger Rewards the next time they restart Deadfire. It's so quick and easy, it's hard to get too upset that there was never an "official" solution.

Cool, it will be interesting to see the numbers once the come in. I guess I just wanted to clarify that there is no secret handshake or conference call that others may be missing out on. Sales data that Fig is required to report to investors is, by necessity, public information. Any further granularity remains up to Obsidian's discretion. We're just at a point where there's no news, because nothing has been released so far. Whenever the release of any significant info happens, it will probably be posted on the forums within minutes.

And to expand on that a little, investors aren't sitting on some secret stash of information. When dividends start being distributed (which hasn't happened yet, nor was it expected so soon), it might be possible to draw some logical inferences about sales, but that's about it. There was no promised access to raw data. In the year since the fundraising campaign, there have been approximately three investor-only emails amounting to: 1. Thanks for your investment 2. Deadfire release? Much hype! 3. Don't forget to set up a Computershare account If anything, wait a few months and check out the filings for other Fig investments. As a high-profile release for Fig, Deadfire sales will probably be referenced in other campaigns.

No, not really. Each item is a distinct file. The only way it would “stop working” is if they included some update in a patch (unlikely) and all that would mean is that you would continue to have the old thing while everyone with the patch would have the new thing (until someone package it up for GOG users). All true. For anyone that cares, here's why: When you have the steam version of Deadfire, the scavenger DLC packs add the following files into exported/design/gamedata : promo_scavhunt_banquet.gamedatabundle promo_scavhunt_cannon.gamedatabundle promo_scavhunt_captaincosmo.gamedatabundle promo_scavhunt_cinder.gamedatabundle promo_scavhunt_cloak.gamedatabundle promo_scavhunt_goldenring.gamedatabundle promo_scavhunt_grog.gamedatabundle promo_scavhunt_lantern.gamedatabundle promo_scavhunt_sails.gamedatabundle promo_scavhunt_stinky.gamedatabundle All the assets for the DLC items are already in the base game, and the above files are simple one-line bits of code that tell Deadfire to drop them into party inventory. When you install the fan-made solution in the same place: Scavhunt_items.gamedatabundle It is a single "add all these at once" edition of the Scavenger hunt scripts. It is functionally no different aside from one file giving ten rewards versus ten files giving one reward. Neither of the two methods modify existing game files, which means they will not be patched out or broken by future updates. Worst-case scenario, installing the fan solution now, and then possibly installing the official solution at a later date, you'll just end up with double the rewards. Neither of the two options conflict with each other, or base game files. Even if you delete any of the above gamedatabundles, it's not like the game will take away the rewards. Once your party has them, you don't need the files again until you start a new game.

GOG simply does not support gimmicky things like the Deadfire Scavenger Hunt. It's not a technical limitation on their end or Obsidian's, it's a philosophical thing. GOG curates content that is whole and complete and does not rely on web tie-ins to activate, redeem, or manage. The scavenger hunt was a cool promo, but it doesn't mesh well with the way GOG wants to do business. At this point, the promo items can, and should, simply be a free DLC pack on all marketplaces. If we ever get an official solution for GOG users, I'd expect that's the form we'd see. But in the meantime, <check out this post>. Download the file, unzip it, drop the contents in the gamedata directory, and you're set. I'm also a GOG user, and I spearheaded much of the Scavenger Hunt in the first place. It's a little disappointing that GOG didn't get an integrated solution like steam, but there's nothing to be bent out-of-shape about. The community found a solution months ago.

I believe the last we heard, ObsidianEric stated on reddit something along the lines of "GOG players WILL be able to get the Scavenger Hunt items or I will die trying". [ RIP Eric, you will be missed. ] Seriously though, just follow the instructions <in this post> Installation is barely any more difficult than installing a mod. The "DLC" files are nothing more than a few tiny scripts to tell the game to drop some items into the party inventory. Who knows if there will ever be an official solution, but following the above instructions is no different than what Steam does to enable the scavenger DLCs.

@anameforobsidian, you forgot one: Pathfinder Adventures - 23,672 I know it was a mobile exclusive for a long time before the steam release... But still... Ouch.

You are correct. There are a handful of reason why the mismatch has occurred, but there are indeed a bunch of bugged weekly challenges. I wish I had something else to tell you, but if you're willing to drop an email to support@obsidian.net with your PFID# (found at the bottom of Pathfinder Options --> Settings) and a brief description of the issue ("The 4th of July weekly challenge did not reward the expected 1776 Gold, so some user on the forums said to email you."), customer support should be able to make things right. Sorry about that.

Most definitely a bug. This is an old weekly challenge that worked back through the schedule and got broken somewhere along the way. I just double-checked some stuff and can confirm what Jenceslav said above. While the game does display 1776 Gold as the reward, the reward slot it's linked to currently hands out a single treasure chest. We'll probably see similar issues in a few months when old Halloween and Thanksgiving challenges come back around on the calendar.

I'm genuinely impressed by all The changes that are on Deck. Of the Many Things, coming up, the mod support and documentation seem really exciting!

Ok everyone. The 1.2 beta has some new documentation baked into the install. Check out: YOUR_PILLARS_DIRECTORY/Docs/Modding/

Unfortunately "Frank Exchange of Views" doesnt fit I'll uh, see myself out.

Heyyyy, I could swear I've seen some of those around before...

Yeah. I came by to say something similar. Many of the underlying bits to Deadfire that parse data bundles haven't changed in the last few versions (if ever). In OP's example, Script Call Data can include FullName, Parameters, UnrealCall, FunctionHash, and ParameterHash. Anything extra is ignored and logged as an error. Maybe there's been a revision on the developer end of OEI Tools/OEI Formats, but nothing seems to have filtered down client-side quite yet. Perhaps Flags might be useful to modders in the future, but at least right now, it's a complete dead-end in Deadfire 1.1.1.

That's actually what makes the encounter a little bugged. One of the core rules is that cards don't have a memory. Unless otherwise directed, each encounter should be brand new and disregard what happened in previous run-ins. If the effects from an Orgekin are allowed to persist, there are handful of other cards that would be a little problematic if they didn't reset post-encounter. The logic behind the Ogrekin bug is that it isn't just a single card, but five. The first encounter is with a master card. It rolls the d4 to summon one of the four variants, then promptly banish itself. You then encounter one of the variants, and if undefeated, that's the card that gets shuffled back into the deck, not the master (because it is already gone). I'm not entirely sure why that's the way things work. My best guess was that it was an easy way to modify the card text so the player knows which Ogrekin variant they're facing. But as implemented, the bug is that the variant doesn't "unsummon" itself and drop the master back into the location deck when undefeated. It would probably have been better to handle it as an encounter effect (Orgekin 1, Ogrekin 2, etc..) than with all the card swapping.

Yes, I'm aware of both. This post is more of a followup to earlier UI issues discovered in the 1.1 Beta. Things may have been fine pre-1.1, but there are some minor oddities now that UI elements are sliding around the main menu. The problem isn't that menu pieces are moving around, it is that they are interleaving rather than being drawn under/over each other. The Hair and Beard DLC did eventually get a check box (not sure what changed), but now it is simultaneously installed/not installed. Per the version number in the top-right, I'm running the same LAXABE set of expansions as in the earlier screenshots.

Some minor UI weirdness in the new 1.1 patch. I suppose the Free DLC info was unlikely to collide with anything in earlier versions, but now that it shifted over, the menu seems to be layered somewhere between the tooltip box and the tooltip text. Also, the Free DLC window doesn't seem to think the Beard and Hair pack is installed, even if the version number in the top-right of the menu would indicate that it is.

Patch Notes for Version 1.1.0.0035: Various performance improvements Awesome job, everyone!

There's definitely something janky with the new news window. I suppose I don't mind the bigness when it properly shifts the window elements around, but any attempt to turn it off results in a misbehaving UI (draws over/under the Menu, requires a several clicks to dismiss, etc...) News On, after restarting the game: News Off, after restarting the game:

If your Galaxy client is still getting hung up over Build 86, turn off auto-updates, and skip ahead to Build 89. Once it is done updating, it should be fine to turn auto-updates back on if you desire.

There's something screwy with build 86 on GOG that is preventing incremental upgrades. However, if you turn off Auto-updates, you should be able to manually select Build 89 and skip over whatever is wrong with that build. Doing so worked for me just fine.

All the beta notes are currently in this post. If you're on the Beta Branch, GOG should update you to at least Build 82. Many of us seem to have server issues getting updated to Build 86 though. :shrug:

Turn off auto updates, it then lets you select which beta patch to install. only 86 isn't working. You should be able to update to 82 without a problem. Although I would really like to be able to update to 86. Thanks! That did the trick. GOG might be stuck on build 82 for now, but I'd rather not get rolled back all the way to 64.