AndreaColombo

When walking on the carpet in the Vailian Embassy in Defiance Bay, occlusion conceals character's feed underneath the carpet, which looks a little jarring. (The same issue affects the woman in Dyrford that asks you to retrieve a dragon egg for her; can't recall her name, but she's on the outside and her feed are literally underground.) SAVED GAME: link REPRO STEPS: Load the attached saved game. Zoom in on the party and observe everyone's feet are hidden underneath the carpet because of occlusion.

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I was thinking the same. IIRC, the only companions that actually remain in the Dyrwood area after the end of the game are Edér and Aloth (am I missing anyone?), so they are the only ones that could potentially make a comeback in the expansion if it takes place afterward (and IF areas in Dyrwood remain accessible, which they probably should if everything starts in Caed Nua; but then, will the game remember whether you killed Raedric? Will it remember whether Edér's become mayor of Dyrford? Lots of reactivity challenges right there.) This also changes the size and scope of the expansion a bunch. I doubt you could justify spending the time and resources on developing 5-6 new companions for a 20-hour game of the size and scope of Tales of the Sword Coast (then again, the fact they split the expansion in two parts already suggested it would end up being bigger than anticipated.)

According to this article on Rock Paper Shotgun: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/06/17/pillars-of-eternity-expansion-the-white-march/ The expansion does indeed start a new storyline after the events of the first game. It will be interesting to see if it really is as big as to have non-linear sidequests and exploration on top of the story. Also, it will be interesting to see if some old companions will stick around, and which ones (all of them?) But more importantly: Will I get my black gothic plate? XD

I believe what Aarik meant is that the issue stems from the saved game having been converted from a previous version. In a new game the issue doesn't occur.

The pledge for the expansion was $20. CA didn't really do much writing for PoE. Eric and Carrie did the bulk of it, that I know of.

Would be nice if there was extra reactivity for base game content too. Like your being a Godlike being taken into account in relevant convo, or the ability to sell the crate to the buyer in Ondra's Gift for example.

Interesting. I wasn't expecting any new companions in the expansion, so one would have been a lot already ... but we get new companions, so two at a minimum (waiting for someone else to say, "CADEGUND CONFIRMED!" ) Really looking forward to this! EDIT: according to this article, new companions include a rogue and a monk and there will be a party-based AI system too.

Based on this interview, IIRC, Justin Bell confirmed in another interview shortly after the game's release that there would be new music as well in the expansion. I sure hope the new items include a black Sarevok-like plate armor with matching black helm and shield, and some colored kick-ass helms to go with Sanguine Plate and Argwes Adra XD Better enemy A.I. and critical path that scales with level would also be rad.

If you've had Edér and Hiravias in your party at the same time for any length of time, then dropped Edér, your main character will have banters with Hiravias in Edér's stead (particularly weird when your character's a woman and speaks in Edér's voice.) Due to the somewhat erratic nature of banters, this one might be a bit of a bitch to repro. SAVED GAME: link REPRO STEPS: Load the attached saved game. Observe that Hiravias is in the party and Edér is not; further observe that Edér is at the stronghold and the protagonist is female. Wander around and make time pass until the next banter between Hiravias and Edér starts. Observe that said banter takes place despite Edér's absence, with the protagonist speaking Edér's lines. Note that in the saved game attached one such banters has just occurred, so it might take a while for another to fire. If there's a console command to force banters, use it.

Well, you could always hand over the plate to get the shop, then use cheats to give yourself the plate. Illicit, if you will, but same end result as you're trying to achieve.

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I think he's referring to quests. Edér, Durance, Kana, Sagani, Pallegina all have quests that are given as soon ad you recruit them. Hiravias and GM must be talked to of the players initiative. Aloth's quest only starts when you reach Defiance Bay and complete Never Far From the Queen.

Hope we're still in time for 1.07? The quotation marks underlined should be removed (each screenshot is a different string exhibiting the issue.) Screenshot - Screenshot Verb missing from this sentence (guess it should be "you're soothing [...]") Screenshot "Recently hatched" should not be hyphenated. Screenshot This loading-screen tip is outdated; shields do not incur a recovery penalty anymore (guess they used to in the early beta days.) Screenshot

I don't think that preventing min/maxing altogether is, or even should be, the design goal of the attribute system. IIRC, the main design goal was "no dump stats"/"no bad builds", which is a noble goal in itself. If a stat is there, it should be interesting and desirable. If it isn't, as Crucis said, why is it even there? So I can dump it to gain more points at CC? Then just drop the stat and give me the extra points from the get-go instead of having me run around with a character that makes no roleplaying sense for the sake of combat mechanics (how do you even picture a MIG 18 / CON 3 character in your mind?) I do not think min/maxing is a plague to be eradicated; it is a perfectly viable playing style. What it is not—and should never be—is the norm. Min/maxing should not be the best way to build your characters and play the game, as it is right now in PoE. It should be hazardous. A score of 3 in CON is barely above the threshold for survival; enemies should be able to one-shot you just looking at you sideways. Likewise, if your RES score is 3 your Deflection should be so low that a mild gust of wind could knock you prone. The penalty from dumping a stat should roughly be equal in magnitude to the benefits from maxing another. That would force you to make hard decisions on how to distribute your points at CC, and jack-of-all-trades characters would be rewarded. Last but not least—min/maxing is a powergaming activity, and powergaming is not the norm or the way a game is meant to be played. There is nothing wrong with it, but the game should not be balanced against it, so it is not surprising that the game's very easy when you min/max and powergame—it is balanced against jack-of-all-trades builds like the joinable NPCs. As a side note, imho the attribute system should not be tailored to the shortcomings of other systems, such as AI and encounter design. Each system should be optimized on its own. To say that the attribute system should be X because encounter design is such that Y would ensue is poor design (it implies that Y should not or could not be changed even if it's clearly sub par.) If you are willingly and knowingly exploiting AI's poor targeting clauses, you are powergaming. Again, nothing wrong with it but you can't complain that the game is too easy (though complaining that AI should be smarter and encounter design should be better is a perfectly valid argument, and one I support.)

Got my numbers mixed up with that one. Indeed +2 Deflection on RES is potentially too much and no change leaves it a tad on the dumpable side. Oh well. We'll see what 1.07 brings to the table.

Right here, complete with graphs and charts, on page 7. MadDemiurg, I sure hope what the devs have in mind is broader in scope than just swapping Deflection for Accuracy on Perception. If they paid any mind to the forums since the game's release (and chances are they have), they must know that CON is the current go-to stat for dumping. If it was either integer-based or it had a bigger impact than 3%, dumping it would become a terrible idea for most builds and pumping it could be worthwhile. Likewise, if RES remained the only Deflection stat, it is my opinion that it should be slightly buffed (but not so much as to have the same effect on Deflection as PER+RES currently have, for that would quite possibly make it overpowered.) That way, dumping it would also be a fairly bad idea (the moment a few shades teleported next to your squishes with dumped CON and RES, your squishes would be dead; especially if shades had extra accuracy from PER.) I also assume PER will give +1 Accuracy per point. Anything beyond that would be exceedingly OP. With these changes, I contend the attribute system would make for much more interesting choices and varied character builds (as opposed to the current system that encourages min/maxing and heavily specialized builds.) This would be a valid argument if the extra Accuracy from PER was necessary for your Petrify spells to hit, which it isn't. It would simply make it more likely by a few % points. But personally I find my spells already hit fairly often; if I had to choose between extra duration and extra chances to hit, I would personally favor the former. Miss? I'll cast it again and I'll probably hit. Then my enemy is petrified forever and I can kill it with ease. Different play styles, I guess

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EUREKA! I got it (and edited my OP to reflect the correct repro steps.) The bug occurs when a spiritshifted Druid is affected by an affliction or effect whose duration is bound to outlast that of the spiritshift. In the case of my repro steps above, when Grieving Mother's power stuns Hiravias, the Spiritshift is going to expire within 2-3 seconds whereas the Stun effect will last 6.6 seconds. 100% repro-ability (which is a word I've just made up to celebrate my QA success.)

This bug affects the game since release but no repro steps were available... until now When a Druid is spiritshifted, sometimes their regular form is visible alongside their animal form. Like this: SAVED GAME: link REPRO STEPS: Load the attached saved game. Select Hiravias and right-click on his Spiritshift ability; observe that it lasts for about 19 seconds. Bring up the console to summon a hostile creature so that combat can start (e.g. BSC cre_blight_earth 1). As soon as the hostile creature appears, pause the game and have the main character (the death godlike holding no weapons) engage it. This ensures that combat will last as long as you need to run the test. Select Hiravias and make him Spiritshift. Start a chronometer immediately to monitor the duration of the ability. Select Grieving Mother. When the chronometer hits the 13-14 second mark, have Grieving Mother cast the 4th-level power Silent Scream on Hiravias to Stun him. Observe that Hiravias's orlan form appears while his Autumn Stelgaer form is still visible.

Were you able to determine what makes them disappear or warp?

I'm fairly sure I've seen a report about this already, with an answer from QA saying it's been logged internally. Unfortunately I do not have a link handy, however. EDIT: Found it.

But that never had anything to do with Accuracy; rather, it has to do with poor AI, lack of immunities, and generally lackluster encounter design. I disagree with MadDemiurg on the fact that PER would become a must-pump stat for everyone—but that much is clear, by now You simply don't need the extra Accuracy to beat the game. Not more than you need the extra damage, action speed, duration, etc.. That said, the more pump-stats you have that fight for your points at character creation, the better. I also disagree on the extent to which the Gauntlets of Accuracy are powerful. +5 out 100 is the same as +1 out of 20—i.e. +5 Accuracy in PoE is the same as +1 attack bonus in Dungeons & Dragons. Hardly a massive benefit, which is the reason why even paired with Zealous Focus they don't make combat that much easier. (I had one play through without Paladins or Gauntlets of Accuracy and one with both, and I didn't really find the second play through to be that much easier; they were roughly comparable.) I do agree that CC spells might require some re-balancing, BUT ... it should be noted that most people playing normally won't have 36 PER in every encounter (or ever.) Besides 36 (or any number close to it) is a godly score for any attribute, so it is unfair to base your judgment of an attribute on its effects when at 36. Pick a melee DPS with 36 MIG and its damage output will be downright insane, for example. If you spend time and effort micromanaging your resources to ensure you always have a godly PER score in every encounter, you are willingly power-gaming: On the one hand, being a lot more powerful than your enemies is your reward for investing time and effort into obtaining high PER scores; on the other, the very goal of power-gaming is to be so powerful that combat encounters become trivial for you. The same would happen by pumping your MIG or DEX scores to similar levels (or petrifying your enemy with the bonus duration from 36 INT.)

Becoming a useful stat for every build except one counts as a vast improvement over being useful for just one build in my books. Also, do you currently manage your in-game time meticulously in order to obtain three pairs of Gauntlets of Accuracy each play through? And do you always have a Paladin in your party with Zealous Focus on to get +6 Accuracy from it? If so, that's perfectly legit but also unnecessary, as that +11 to Accuracy doesn't really make you overpowered or able to cut through otherwise difficult encounters as though they were a cakewalk. It helps, but it's not a game-changer. If not, why would you suddenly feel compelled to max out PER on every build to get +10 Accuracy from it? Is there anything suggesting that enemies' Deflection would increase to a point where you'd absolutely need the extra Accuracy from PER? Also, once again, refer to the paper I linked for DPS calculation. +1 Accuracy on PER is very well balanced against +2% damage on MIG (and MIG currently grants +3%, so it would probably be better than PER in even more occasions.) It is also well balanced against +1 Deflection on RES, and RES currently grants more than +1 (and could grant more than it currently does if PER was changed to +1 Accuracy, imho.) So yeah. Maxing out PER would be viable but by all means not mandatory and definitely not necessarily the best choice in all situations/builds.

I disagree with Fardragon's post and would welcome the change. Allow me to elaborate (I'll use bullet points to improve readability as it'll likely end up being a wall of tl;dr text): Right now we have three universally useful DPS stats (MIG, DEX, INT), one universally useless dump stat (CON), and two stats that are only relevant to one specific build (PER and RES; tank). By changing PER to give +1 Accuracy per point, you'd turn it from being a dump-stat for everyone except tanks (and the ever elusive Interrupt builds) to another universally useful DPS stat. Building DPS characters would subsequently become more interesting, as you'd need to choose among four stats you couldn't simultaneously maximize. Your DPS builds would cease being 16/16/16 MIG/DEX/INT (or 18/18/18 if you dumped CON) and more options would open up that are equally viable. "Jack-of-all-trades" characters would become stronger relative to min/maxed characters, whereas right now the latter are always much better than the former. I disagree that PER would become a must-pump stat for everyone. PoE would not cease being the same game we've been playing so far, where having a +10 to Accuracy from attributes is not vital to winning. It is entirely possible to be effective in combat without pumping Accuracy (you don't necessarily need the Gauntlets of Accuracy or a Paladin's Zealous Focus aura, and even having both simultaneously doesn't trivialize combat in my experience) and it will continue to be so if PER is changed. Maxing out PER would give you an edge which would be offset by the damage output (MIG), action speed (DEX), AoE and duration (INT) etc. you wouldn't get by not investing the points in the relevant stats. Additionally, the (currently obnoxiously limited and highly specialized) scope of tanks would change. Right now, pure tanks have maxed PER and RES, resulting in ridiculously high Deflection, and ridiculously low Accuracy, damage output, and action speed. Hence, tanks are totally useless in combat except for soaking up damage. By having a single stat for Deflection instead of two, you'd free up 8 points for your tank to spend elsewhere and it would become a bit more diverse and less boring as a build. Also, the tank-and-spank tactic would cease being as cheesy as to be considered fundamental by many (tanks wouldn't be nigh immortal any longer, but they would be able to output some damage.) Shields would become a viable choice for non-tank characters. Right now, if you hold a shield, you must be a tank. Why? Because shields incur a (hefty) Accuracy penalty that can't be made up for in any way (or partially if you find the Gauntlets of Accuracy, but as they're part of the random loot table, you can't build a character around the assumption that you'll have them.) If PER gives Accuracy, you can use it to offset the penalty from shields and characters using them would become viable in combat. Again, the price you'd pay for it is the points you invest in PER and can't place in other DPS stats. Dumping RES and making up for the loss of Deflection by putting points in PER would stop being viable. If only RES governs your Deflection and you dump it, you're a glass cannon. Perfectly viable, but with inherent risks that must be taken into account. This would be even more true if RES was rebalanced to account for its being the only remaining stat that governs Deflection (i.e. if its bonus to Deflection was increased, but not doubled.)—dumping it would be become a very bad idea in most scenarios, and min/maxing would be less attractive (again, still viable but a lot less "risk-free" than it is now.) As a collateral benefit, Pallegina would stop being a poorly optimized tank and start being a useful character in combat Monsters would hit you harder as they'd gain extra Accuracy from their PER score too (it is my humble opinion that their Deflection should not be lower, however) and you would only have one stat for Deflection as opposed to two. This way Deflection would be suddenly more meaningful. It doesn't super make sense to have one stat for damage (MIG), one for action speed (DEX), one for Interrupt (PER), one for Concentration (RES) but two for Deflection (PER, RES) and zero for Accuracy. It's much more balanced to have one and one for Deflection and Accuracy respectively, even on paper. Additionally, please refer to this paper for the math comparing DPS from +1 Accuracy on PER against MIG and DEX. Besides, it makes sense for a stat carrying Interrupt to be offensive, rather than defensive.