AndreaColombo

Oh. My. God. I didn't think we'd get the first one so fast! These weren't exactly advertised. I'm starting the first one immediately. Also, the second story just might be spoilering the new companion from TWM pt. II

'sides, whether a specific sale figure makes a success or a failure largely depends on how much was spent to develop, market, and distribute the game. Those expenses determine the break-even point, past which a game is profitable for its stakeholders; therefore, companies can easily calculate the minimum sale figure needed for the game to be a success. A very expensive game can be a failure if it sells 2 million copies, and an indie game can be successful just selling 500,000. Wasteland 2 sold 485K units on Steam according to Steam Spy, so slightly less than Pillars of Eternity. IIRC, Brian Fargo called it a success, and said sales like WL2's would enable inXile to keep doing these games indefinitely. Of course inXile's much smaller than Obsidian and has different expense patterns, but as far as PoE is concerned when considered on its own, I'd say it was successful. Obsidian can't probably sustain itself just making games like PoE, but they can certainly make a profit from them while they keep working on other projects as well.

I think we're saying the same thing with different wording There are buffs/bonuses in the game that generically apply to "attack speed." Examples include the weapon "Speed" enchantment, Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, Durgan Steel when applied to weapons, and the Swift Aim modal. These always apply to your recovery time regardless of whether you also have penalties stacked on it; if you are wearing clothing with 0% recovery penalty and sip a potion of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, for example, your recovery is 50% faster. There are buffs/bonuses, on the other hand, that only apply to "armor recovery penalty." These include the Armored Grace Fighter ability, or Durgan Steel when applied to armors. These will only do something so long as you are wearing an armor that applies a penalty to your recovery: If you're wearing clothes with 0% recovery, taking Armored Grace won't make your recovery 16% faster. Durgan Steel can be applied to weapons, shields, or armors and gives different bonuses for each. For weapons, it gives +15% attack speed (it applies to recovery even if you are naked); for armors, it reduces the recovery penalty by 15% (only works if your armor is actually bestowing a penalty.) This is in addition to other bonuses that aren't relevant to speed, and therefore of no interest in this context I agree with you that DEX is multiplicative. The reason why I kept the 4-frame delay separate is that it seems to be unaffected by modifiers and stays there even when you manage to eliminate recovery. I've just tested this with my dual-wielding Barbarian: The attack animation is 24 frames, then there's a 4-frame delay before the second hand swings. No recovery bar ever appears. That said, it does seem like it makes sense to include the 4-frame delay into the calculation. I'll keep an eye out for that in my tests going forward. The way we count is very similar. I too count recovery frames from the moment the bar appears to the moment the bar is empty; then, the 4-frame delay ensues, after which the attack animation starts. I never start counting attack-animation frames from the first swing as that seems to also include a delay from the moment you order to attack to the moment it is executed; I always just count after the first recovery is over for the sake of precision. Could it be that we have a 4-frame delay after recovery, as well as one before recovery starts? To test this, I'll use the console to give my character a 100% action speed bonus from DEX and count frames. I'll keep you posted. EDIT: Here's some research. In all tables above, the 4-frame delay is always included in the recovery numbers. Looking at the 10 DEX numbers, it looks like speed penalties are calculated on recovery including the 4-frame delay, then another 4-frame delay is added on top of that. For example, Plate armor bestows a 50% armor speed penalty calculated as 50*(1+0.5)=75, which includes the 4-frame delay (recovery being 46 frames + 4 frame delay.) But then I observed a recovery time of 75 frames + a 4-frame delay, which had already been included in the prior calculation. Dexterity appears to apply "weirdly" in all cases, as shown by just looking at figures for the naked character. Granted, a 2- or 3-frame discrepancy is so small that it makes no difference in real-world scenarios, but for the sake of understanding how the game mechanics work, they pose a bit of a conundrum. EDIT II: Moar tests. This is with the Blade of the Endless Paths. Penalties: Plate Armor (50%) Vulnerable Attack (20%) Bonuses: Armored Grace (-16% penalty) Durgan Steel armor (-15% penalty) Durgan Steel weapon (+15% attack speed) Speed weapon (+20% attack speed) Deleterious Alacrity of Motion (+50% attack speed) 25 DEX (+45% action speed; applies to both attack and recovery) Expected: Attack: 30 * (1-0.45) = 16.5 Recovery: 50 * (1+0.5+0.2-0.16-0.15-0.15-0.2-0.5) / (1+0.45) = 50 * (1-0.46) / (1+0.45) = 27 / (1.45) = 18.62 Observed: Attack: 24 frames (seems to be hard-capped.) Recovery: 15 frames (11 + 4-frame delay) This one is with a Pollaxe. Penalties: Plate Armor (50%) Vulnerable Attack (20%) Bonuses: Armored Grace (-16% penalty) Durgan Steel armor (-15% penalty) Deleterious Alacrity of Motion (+50% attack speed) 25 DEX (+45% action speed; applies to both attack and recovery) Expected: Attack: 30 * (1-0.45) = 16.5 Recovery: 50 * (1+0.5+0.2-0.16-0.15-0.5) / (1+0.45) = 50 * (1-0.11) / (1+0.45) = 44.5 / (1.45) = 30.68 Observed: Attack: 20 frames (very strange; should probably check a Pollaxe with no bonuses or penalties.) Recovery: 33 frames (29 + 4-frame delay)

Hi blinkicide, attack speed and recovery times have been subject to long investigations and debates since the game's release, as seen in this thread which you may find interesting. I have conducted some tests myself for my Lady of Pain build; you'll find them here. My tests are all frame-based, however, as opposed to second-based. To conduct them, I capped the game's speed at 30 fps, then recorded a 30-fps video with nVidia Shadowplay and advanced it frame-by-frame in VLC, manually counting. Math usually adds up except in a few cases; 1 or 2 frame discrepancies can be due to human error or simply system glitches (since PoE is not the only process running in Windows at any given time.) They amount to 1/30th of a second, so they're fairly inconsequential. It is known that while DEX affects everything, anything in the game that says "attack speed" only affects recovery time (except, of course, stuff that explicitly affects firearms' reload speed, such as the Gunner talent or one of the Chanter's chants.) I believe the devs mentioned in an interview they did this purposefully to avoid messing too much with attack animations. Additionally, there appears to be a 4-frame delay between the end of the recovery time and the beginning of the next attack animation; I believe this was done to avoid glitches or otherwise strange behaviors in case the player built a character with 0 recovery time. It is worth noting that stuff that reduces armor speed penalties only works if you actually have an armor speed penalty. So if you're wearing clothes with 0% recovery penalty and take the Armored Grace ability, and/or enchant them with Durgan Steel, they will not make your recovery any faster. All my tests are based on a character wielding a two-hander, although I've recently built a barbarian that dual-wields battle axes with no recovery time while using Vulnerable Attack (after sipping a Deleterious Alacrity of Motion potion, of course.) Standard attack animation for a two-hander lasts 30 frames, and there appears to be a hard limit of 24 frames for it. A character with 36% bonus speed from DEX attacks at 24 frames, and so does one with a 45% bonus. Chances are attack animations were capped this way to avoid messing with them too much, as the developers mentioned. Recovery is often quoted as being 60 frames, but that is not consistent with my frame-by-frame analysis. I consistently get 50 frames, including the 4-frame delay; this would put recovery at 46 frames, which is consistent with recovery for two-handers being attack speed + 50% (1-frame variance is immaterial.) My most recent test: Penalties: Plate Armor (50%) Vulnerable Attack (20%) Bonuses: Armored Grace (-16% penalty) Durgan Steel armor (-15% penalty) Durgan Steel weapon (+15% attack speed) Deleterious Alacrity of Motion (+50% attack speed) 25 DEX (+45% action speed; applies to both attack and recovery) Expected: Attack: 30 * (1-0.45) = 16.5 Recovery: 46 * (1+0.5+0.2-0.16-0.15-0.15-0.5-0.45) = 46 * (1-0.71) = 13.34 + 4-frame delay OR, if DEX applies to recovery in the same way it applies to attack as you suggest, Recovery: 46 * (1+0.5+0.2-0.16-0.15-0.15-0.5) / (1+0.45) = 46 * (1-0.26) / (1+0.45) = 34.4 / (1.45) = 23.5 + 4-frame delay Observed: Attack: 24 frames (seems to be hard-capped.) Recovery: 21 frames + 4-frame delay (closer to your way of applying DEX, but faster by 2.5 frames)

Let us not forget, on top of what others already mentioned, that PoE is a PC-only game in a console-driven era and it belongs to a genre long considered obsolete and dead. Nowadays console-kids prefer shooters with swords action RPGs with awesomesauce buttons, copious amounts of hand holding, and voice acting that ensures they don't need to strain their eyes and minds on longer text than a line or two tops. Selling 500,000 copies in seven months is not bad, imo.

You know you want it.

I honestly thought they had passed the 500,000 mark a while ago. Steam Spy puts the game at about 545,000 owners, and the Hero Edition was ahead of Divinity: Original Sin in overall number of copies sold on GoG.com for a time, which would put it over the 150,000 mark. Plus there's origin. So, about 700,000 minus backer copies; can the latter be as many as 200,000? Even then, they say they're at 500,000 including backer copies. Oh well. Whatever the case, I sure hope they keep selling well and keep making isometric, party-based RPGs with RTwP combat Also, http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-10-23-pillars-of-eternity-sells-500-000 Oh, yes. YES, I tell you! EDIT: Just spotted in Eisenheinrich's link F**K YEAH!

^ Ah, I thought Sickened also triggered Sneak Attack but I see I was mistaken. Oh well. I'm not a fan of Heart of Fury as I don't think it is powerful enough to justify its being just 1/rest. Barbaric Blow is per encounter and gets more bonuses, unless I'm missing something. Threatening Presence + Brute Force should work well on Hard; I see how it could be less effective in PotD. Barbaric Shout and Vengeful Defeat (or Blooded) can be good replacements. Eye of the Storm can actually make it harder to trigger One Stands Alone so I would definitely avoid it unless you were purposefully going for a mobility build.

^ Chanters have the issue of building up chants really slow. Other than that, they're not a class I'm particularly keen on, but that boils down to personal taste. Just tried to build a Barbarian—there's a pretty nice synergy between Threatening Presence, Brute Force, and Apprentice's Sneak Attack. Barbaric Blow is pretty neat and of course Dragon Leap is cool. Other than that, I can get him to attack with no recovery time while dual-wielding battle axes with Vulnerable Attack. That's A LOT of DPS, especially if we factor in (accurate) Carnage and the ability to stun-lock enemies with We Toki. Deflection and Will are low but there's a Priest for that plus Edge of Reason regenerates Endurance so ... yeah, I wouldn't say Barbarians are weak.

That said, it is totally possible to beat the dragon at level 12 with story NPCs. A fully custom party just makes it easier; if you're level 14, it's a walk in the park with story companions too

Normal speed with auto-pause options and of course extra manual pauses whenever I see fit.

I used to play with slow combat but not anymore. I don't mind the faster pace, and auto-pause when a party member finishes an ability ensures combat's put on hold often enough for me to plan or rethink my moves. I believe one thing we need is for enemies to act synergistically. Currently they act individually without ever combining their strengths or attacks. It never happens that one debuffs you and another purposefully attacks the debuffed defense, for example, which is something we do all the time as players. Of course some degree of reactivity would be great, but I guess that would be asking for too much at this stage. Perhaps in PoE 2 That, and I agree some encounters should have custom (and partially reactive) A.I. scripts.

Same here. But I don't see that getting fixed for this game unless they just artificially pumped enemy stats further, which wouldn't be a great solution at this point. Stats on PotD are fine imo; we need better A.I., better encounter design and perhaps bracketed scaling for the critical path.

Yeah, forgot to mention I'm also a huge aesthetics b**ch and Sanguine Plate is my favorite

Pretty sure "Stamina" should be "Endurance" Screenshot Subject being singular, the verb should be "feels" Screenshot The correct name is "Krivi" without an "s" Screenshot

Roby, any chance you could look at this for 2.03?

^ In a nutshell: I like to give my build a high score in Survival to make potions of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion last longer in combat. I generally crank it up to 10, and Sanguine Plate adds +2 on top of that for a total of 12. That's a 60%-longer duration for the one potion that ridiculously boosts your DPS. My build has poor Deflection and is prone to being critted. It offsets this with packing high DR and by wearing items that unleash beneficial effects upon taking a crit: Sanguine Plate and Shod-in-Faith. The -10 penalty to Deflection that comes with Frenzy doesn't really matter much on a build whose Deflection is already poor, especially when Consecrated Grounds is healing you for over 200 points of Endurance and you dish out damage like there was no tomorrow. My build also relies on the presence of a Priest that buffs it, and Priests sure aren't short on Deflection buffs: They can get you as much as +50 Deflection with but two spells, plus another +50 against specific afflictions through the various Prayer Against [...] spells. That said, Frenzy's bonus to Attack Speed doesn't stack with Deleterious Alacrity of Motion and its bonus to Might doesn't stack with that from Priest spells, so its value is diminished in fights in which you heavily rely on buffs. However, it makes a pretty decent trick in fights where you've run out of good buffs or you just can't be bothered to cast them.

Tangentially, Zahua makes a very good Juggernaut. His stats are also quite close to what KDubya's build suggests.

I guess A.I. updates and changes to encounter design are out of scope for a patch and require more manpower than smaller balance changes. I'm actually happy they keep on fine-tuning their system alongside fixing bugs; it has come a long way since release imo. EDIT: To clarify, I definitely hope TWM pt. II brings further improvements to enemy A.I. and encounter design to the table (I also hope most of it will be high-level content, as in 14+)

I'm not getting this bug in my current play through though.

I'm almost there in my play through; I'll post my save.

Sanguine Plate is a better armor for your Fighter than the White Crest (which looks amazing but really isn't special from a mechanical perspective); especially so when paired with the Shod-in-Faith boots. That's the bread and butter of my build, in fact. KDubya's Juggernaut Monk is up there too. But are you sure Wizard only comes second? Aloth has the highest number of crits and highest total damage done statistics in my party (though the Lady of Pain has the highest single-target damage and the most hits.)

SAVED GAME: link OUTPUT LOG: link REPRO STEPS: Load the attached saved game. Access the Journal and observe the Servant of Death quest has been completed to Berath's satisfaction. Face Lord Raederic and kill him. Go back to the lady Fampyr and try to talk to her. Observe she thinks Lord Raederic is still there waiting for you. EDIT: Aarik, while you're tinkering with the saved game above could you write up a ticket for the following? Apologies for not opening a new thread for it but it's the same saved game and output log, plus I'm lazy Load the attached saved game. Select the protagonist and observe she has the Savage Attack and Vulnerable Attack modals available. Go to her character record screen and browse her talents. Observe that Savage Attack and Vulnerable Attack are not listed. Count her talents excluding those gained through quests. Being a 14th-level character she should have 7, but only 4 are listed. Of the three missing, two are Savage Attack and Vulnerable Attack; the other is Weapon Focus: Soldier (if you manually calculate her Accuracy, you'll see the talent is actually working.) Not sure when they disappeared from the list, honestly. I've just noticed they were missing now—apparently from all of my recent saves.

While we're at it, and because I do not know where else to post news: And from Something Awful:

Agreed. Those resting bonuses are pretty good now. Josh mentioned on SA that creating new content for the stronghold is a focus for him for TWM pt. II but no details are known except that new minor/average/major adventures are being added for companions you leave there. It will be named adventures with fixed rewards.