Ark Evensong

Couple of days later, so you may have your answer already, but I'm pretty sure it's like this: All retail boxes will include the Steam version. The only boxed versions with a DRM-free disc go to those who backed during the kickstarter for a physical edition. (Or perhaps shortly after? Not sure how long the "Backer Phase" was extended, nor am I sure if it included physical no-DRM options. In any case, it's no longer available now.) The way it currently looks, those DRM-free discs will not be ready for release date, and will ship later. You will however, be able to buy a digital, DRM-free version from GoG.com

With a rough 3:1 split, I think it may be prudent to actually offer this as an actual choice to the backers. Not sure how feasible it would be, logistics wise. But would be nice. If Obsidian/Paradox does decide to split up the shipment process, might I suggest a third option? Retail (Steam) disc with code. Would also fix the problem for those with limited internet bandwidth or who intended to share their extra digital key with a friend. So, Option #1: DEFAULT. Goodies soon, DRM-free game disc later. Option #2: Goodies and DRM-free game disc later. Option #3: Goodies and Retail(Steam+code) disc soon. That should cover just about everyone's bases, right? Or am I missing a group?

As far as saving money is concerned, there's likely to be some cost to storing a couple of thousand boxes for an extra month or two as well. ... probably not more than shipping twice. Still.

So I get that printing DRM-free pre-1.0 discs is bad. But isn't printing DRM'ed pre-1.0 discs almost as bad? I'm assuming that's what the retail package is going to contain. (There are retail plans, right?) Fancy Steam activation/DRM or not, stuff tends to get cracked pretty soon anyway. I guess you could simply not include the executable on the disc, considering Steam would replace it with 1.0+ instantly anyway. Just the art assets. Good luck getting around that, pirates. (Then look on in horror as they'll somehow manage to get the Backer Beta .exe to work with the full game assets and ruin everything anyway.) EDIT: Reading the update again, that seems to pretty much be the plan anyway. Pre-Load Faster Installation Disc. Sure. Nevermind then!

Eh, either option should get you the physical software disc at around the same time. It's the rest of the goodies that would ship sooner or later.

I kinda hope for the developers that this doesn't mean an extra two months or so of crunch time. Crunch time is terrible if lasts longer than a couple of weeks. I'd accept another 1-2 month delay just for that. Maybe I'm a softie. As for funding? Well, they do have a publisher now. Maybe Paradox is willing to foot the bill for a few months of development by a small team just to get a better product. Or, you know, a slightly bigger cut of sales revenue. 's Not that hard.

Maybe they're pulling a Fallout (1&2) and use both? (Now, also add a Deflection value to Armor, and it'll be complete!)

Your numbers are still off. I think I get your point, though. You want to have access to an almost-full party of (written) companions very early in the game, as opposed to 'needing' to fill up those slots with (hired) Adventurers? And the quicker the increase of size of your party, the better? Fair point. I personally wouldn't mind starting off with just one or two Companions, and only slowly adding to that, forgoing Adventurers completely. But then again, I'm no real IE veteran. Here's where the numbers are off, in case you didn't just mistype : Max Party Size: 6 Not eight. Six is the max size. (Ever*) So, starting with 4 or 5 companions will be a full party, and will steamroll the early game. Pare it down to ~3 Companions available starting from the early early game, and I shan't complain further. *: Not counting Animal Companions, Pets and Summons, and perhaps really-short term NPCs? Oh, and possible expansions or sequels- who knows?

Yeah, I saw, after commenting on yet another thread where this idea was brought up. I think you were first, though. (At least, in the last couple of weeks. Dunno if there were others before. I haven't seen 'em, but it's fairly big forum with about two years of content.) It's perhaps a little "gamist", but I like it, and I think it would be clearer to new players. I'm okay with the current system, though (with some tweaks, but they're working on those.) - So I won't complain too loudly. Ooooh. No, not really equivalent, but I like this as well. It's not really the same because in the current system, you start each combat at full strength until you hit the bottom of the health bar, at which point you're in trouble, while in your (or Xenonauts') system, you'd start each subsequent combat a little worse for wear. As an example, consider these subsequent fights, during which a 100 HP character receives no healing, and takes 80 damage before the fight is over. Fight 1: Current: Survives with 20 Stamina/Endurance, restores back to 100 - Health at 80 (or 320, if we're using the system we're expecting to see in the next patch) Yours (at 20% rest-only restoration) : Survives with 20 HP, restores back to 84 HP (20+80*0. Fight 2: Current: Survives with 20 Endurance, restores back to 100 - Health at 60 (/240) Yours: Survives with 4 HP, restores back to 68 HP (4+80*0. Fight 3: Current: Survives with 20 Endurance, restores back to 100 - Health at 40 (/160) Yours: Is downed after 68 HP damage. ?Restores back to 54 HP? (0+68*0.8, rounded) (Maybe there should be a "downed" penalty? -10% max HP or something? Skipping that for now.) Fight 4: Current: Survives with 20 Endurance, restores back to 100 - Health at 20 (/80) (or, restores back to 80, if I understood some of the planned 'clarity' UI updates.) Yours: Is downed after 54 HP damage. ?Restores back to 43 HP? (0+54*0. Fight 5: Current: Upon last hit of the fight, is downed and DEAD, or Restores with 1 Health and Maimed status. Yours: Is downed after 43 HP damage. ?Restores back to 34 HP? (0+43*0. Fight 6: Current (if Permadeath is off): Is downed upon first hit of fight and DEAD. Stays DEAD properly this time. Yours: Is downed after 34 HP damage. ?Restores back to 27 HP? (0+34*0. ... etc, etc. (restores to 22, 18, 14, 11, 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 ... um, yeah, definitely needs a "downed" penalty somewhere.) I think that should illustrate the difference - under your system, you start dropping out of fights sooner, but you'll survive longer. (If there's no "downed" penalty, anyway.) Sure, we can tinker with the recovery percentage, but it'll never line up completely - I think that's okay, though. Certainly an interesting system. Worth considering, in my opinion. [EDIT: because the darn thing is messing with emoticons and font sizes. Ugh.]

Eh, I think you misunderstood those Sawyer quotes. The early game content is not made for a 6 member party, but for less, and 6 is the maximum amount of characters in a party. (Whether that's PC+5 written Companions or PC+5 hired Adventurers doesn't matter.) You can send currently-not-in-party Companions/Adventurers to your stronghold, but the total number of (self-made) Adventurers can't exceed 8 at a time. (So, 5 in party, 3 at stronghold or all 8 at stronghold - again, doesn't matter.)

I'm actually not so sure that would be the easiest way to implement it. You're making an exception to the Fire->Reload mechanics - and that might be more difficult than expected. I don't think there are multi-shot weapons in the game at all at the moment. I mean, if there are, then it would be pretty easy. But then a brace of three pistols is no different from a three-shot revolver that's a little slower to reload. (Aside from the fluffy text description and in-inventory graphics.) As far as jamming goes, would this only be for the Brace of Pistols or Quick-Item implementation, or also for normally equipped guns? I ... think the former would be pretty weird, and for the latter - I'm not a fan of turning all guns into "Awesome but Unreliable". The way I'd see it implemented, guns in the quick item bar would basically be encounter powers. 1 per pistol/slot used. No reloading in combat. Concern about overpoweredness comes from running around with 6 characters, each with ~2+ 'free' hard-hitting pistol shots, without having to give up a weapon set for it.

I don't think something like that is planned. I like the idea of carrying a brace of pistols, though, if not the implementation (You'd still need a 'switching weapons' animation between shots. Also, why am I not allowed to divvy up these three pistols among my party?) I think my favorite implementation would be to allow pistols in the Quick Item slots. You get 6 per character. Might be a bit overpowered, though, if everyone can use it.

Oh, sure. I see how that value represents your "true" or "daily" Health. What I don't see as intuitive is to have that value (called Health) decrease on healing effects. That non-intuitive leap undoes any gain in clarity of incoming damage only affecting one pool, in my opinion. A simple name change could fix that, though. (Restoration Pool, Health Reserves/Reserve Health, /whatever) If that means you end up with no stat simply called "Health", that's fine by me. Hadn't seen the suggestion before myself on these board, (sometimes, they move rather quickly.) but I didn't expect to be first or only one with it.

I like it, but then again I wrote a similar idea just last night, buried somewhere. Terminology should probably change, though. You lose Health by Healing? That doesn't make any sense. I went with "Restoration Pool", which is terrible, but not as confusing. Not sure I like the bar -> number change, though. You say that for intuitiveness, "number > bar, always", but in your example, it's placed pretty much where you would expect your "Immediate Health" (=Stamina/Endurance), not your backup pool. It's less immediate, so it doesn't need as immediate a representation on/near your portrait. IMO, the current green bar would be fine. And, perhaps this is unnecessary, since I got used to the current system pretty quickly. Others have, too. Then again, I (we?) knew what to expect beforehand.

Sure, but then you're breaking the 1:1 damage ratio again. Not sure if that'll help with the new system being clearer. Not that I really have problems with either 1:1 MaxHealth:MaxStamina or 1:1 HealthDamage:StaminaDamage, but having at least one of these constant would be good, I think. I'm toying with another idea, though, which might be easier to present to players, while functionally being pretty much the same : Switch "Health" to a "Restoration Pool" - getting damaged doesn't drain your green bar, being healed does. (And let's call Stamina/Endurance "Hit Points", - they're exactly the same, so it's not because it makes more sense, but this post would get (more) confusing otherwise. Also, "Restoration Pool" is a dumb name, but can be abbreviated easily.) Keep the values they're implementing for now. 4 Health:1 Endurance -> 4 RP:1 HP (... or uh, 3 RP:1 HP, actually. Health(-1):Endurance) Healing is done on a 1:1 scale. In or out of combat, doesn't matter. Run out of HP? You're knocked out. Run out of RP? You're still standing, but no more healing for you. Run out of HP with an empty RP bar? You're goners. There are some edge cases, though. Health:Endurance can easily support "knock-out gas", Endurance damage without affecting Health. This one? Not so easily. (But I think the "Restoration Pool" would handle the converse better. Special attacks that also affect another bar would stand out more than special attacks that affect one bar more than usually.) When and how to implement Maimed status might need some rethinking as well. Can't have that occur on 0 RP, because it doesn't make sense to have maimed status be triggered by a healing action. Hmm.

For this system to increase the longevity of melee classes, the resource which governs their mortality must be higher when applying damage at a 1:1 between them. Otherwise the character will die before they get knocked out. Mortality Statistic: Knockout Statistic 50:150 - Character takes 50 damage, distributed at a 1:1 ratio. Character's statistics are now 0:100. They are dead, but still fighting? 150:50 - Character takes 50 damage, distributed at a 1:1 ratio. Character's statistics are now 100:0. They are alive, but incapacitated. From the quote, it sounds like Mr. Sawyer is using Endurance as the mortality stat, while Health is the knockout stat. Whatever they call them, let's just hope that it works out like supposition #2. I'm not reading it that way at all. My understanding is that endurance/stamina is completely unchanged as a mechanic. You run out of endurance/stamina and you are knocked out. Similarly, health will still be the mortality stat. It's just that you will have a lot more of it, and it will be lost at the same rate as endurance/stamina. I think you're reading too much into this. The change is far less sweeping than you are thinking. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're out of the fight if either Health or Stamina/Endurance drops to 0, with the chance to get back up if it's just the latter. I believe another change they were planning was to make it more clear when it's the Health side of the equation that's going to drop you first. I think by a shiny line on the stamina bar once health drops below the max stamina value? (As in, stamina drops to that line, and you can't heal your stamina above it anymore?) Not sure what this does to abilities that do extra damage to Health. Like, Poison and Deep Wounds ... I think those did direct damage to Health, right? Or was it just that they kept doing damage even when knocked out (Stamina = 0)? Hmmm. [Edit: Top of the page, so inserting quotes.]

Hey Roby, kinda figured this was a known issue, but found it worth pointing out anyway, just in case it wasn't. No sweat about not getting a fix in for the first patch - it's functional enough as is, just a bit awkward when/if you notice it. Thanks for the reply!

Bumping because it's been a week, no reply, and I haven't seen anyone else bring it up yet. (Which ... kind of makes me feel awkward, but eh, I spent some time on writing this out, and I figured it might be best to call attention to it before the next build rolls out? Then again, maybe it's already fixed, I did hear about UI fixes.) This isn't a me-only bug, right? I could supply logs/dxdiag if needed. Not high priority or anything, but I'd hate to still see this behavior in the final build.

Thirded, but this is not a new bug - pretty sure it was reported day one. It's also in the "Known Issues List" sticky. (Second post, though, not the first.)

... Not a bug? Resolve helps against interrupts, which fits the idea of a Frenzy. Nor would I consider a +4 Constitution increase a "massive Stamina bonus", A bonus, sure, but not massive. So I'm reading the "temporary massive Stamina bonus" as a separate effect. (A self-heal, if you will, perhaps with a temporary higher cap?) Description could perhaps be written better to make this clearer. Also, "Increases melee damage" - but +4 Might also increases ranged damage, soo ... perhaps the "+Melee damage" effect is separate from the "+4 Might" as well? Hrmm ... yeah, could use some cleanup.

Eh, considering the minimum attribute score was 8 (7 with racial penalty) until shortly before the Beta, I'm not surprised "Idiot Speak" didn't make it in, or was perhaps never (seriously) considered. In fact, considering most of the game has been built with the expectation of no stats below 7, non-gated dialog options at least consider you somewhat competent at all the various attributes. Currently, I believe for dialogues, there's no difference between a 3 and an 8, while above this value (or perhaps at 10+? not sure.) you'll start to see dialog options opening up. I'd argue for upping the minimum attribute score back to 8~ish for the final release, if only to avoid such 'immersion breakers' and non-combat dump-stat behavior. I'm really not expecting them to start writing Completely Incompetent dialog options all over the place at this stage of development. (Because why stop at Intellect?) Another point to consider is that the relevant attribute we're talking about is "Intellect", not "Intelligence", and while related, I think their definitions can be interpreted differently enough - You could be a complete non-intellectual without being an idiot.

Two bugs here, and both pop up in (at least) two different places. Bug 1a): [Description of the issue] Information window on the right during character creation does not update until mouse-over when distributing Attributes. [steps to reproduce / take notice of] Start a new game, select sex (any), race (any), for class select Fighter. Click Next. -Notice how information window on the right still displays information about the Fighter class. (See screenshot) Mouse-over an attribute, -Notice how right screen displays information about the last mouse-overed attribute (As it's supposed to) Click next, select a culture. Click on the attribute bar at the top of the screen -Notice how information window still displays information about the selected culture. [Expected behaviour] Upon arriving in the Attribute distribution screen, Information window should be blank, or list general information about Attributes. (What are they, what do they do?) [Other remarks / Comments] Perhaps Notably, issue does not happen when selecting a Ranger, and arriving in the Animal Companion selection screen. Bug 1b): Same issue happens during level-ups when you can select a talent. [Description of the issue] Information window on the right during level-up when you can select a talent does not update until mouse-over. [steps to reproduce / take notice of] Start a new game, go through character creation with a Fighter. Once in-game, level up once as usual (to Level 2). Level up again (to 3), distribute your Skill points, click [Next], arrive in Talent select screen. -Notice how information window on the right still displays information about the last mouse-overed skill in the previous screen. (See screenshot) [Expected behaviour] Information window should be blank, or display general information about Talents. [Other remarks / Comments] Now that we're here, let's look at another bug, shall we? Bug 2): [Description of the issue] When picking a talent during level-up, information window displays information about last mouse-overed talent, instead of selected one. [steps to reproduce / take notice of] Just ... get to the talent selection screen. If you checked out Bug 1b), you should be here already, otherwise follow the steps described there. Click on the first talent, selecting it. -Notice how information window displays information about "Weapon Focus Adventurer" (As should be.) Mouse-over the last talent in the first row. -Notice how information window displays information about "Hold the Line" (As should be.) Move mouse to "Neutral" space. -Notice how, despite "Weapon Focus Adventurer" is selected, information window displays info about "Hold the Line" (See Screenshot) [Expected behaviour] Information window should display information about selected talent, or current mouse-over, NOT last mouse-over. As in: NO selected talent AND Cursor in neutral space - "General Talent" information. Cursor on Talent icon - Information about currently mouse-overed talent WITH selected talent AND Cursor in neutral space - Information about selected talent Cursor on Talent icon- Information about currently mouse-overed talent [Other remarks / Comments] Almost same bug happens during character creation for the Ranger, when picking an animal companion. Difference here is that there IS a "General Animal Companion" information screen, which displays properly upon first entering the screen. It ALSO re-appears upon de-selecting an animal companion, but vanishes as soon as you move the mouse - the information screen reverts back to "Last mouse-over" behaviour, and considering your mouse cursor is in the middle of an icon, it can't move to 'neutral' space. During similar screens, but where you can make 2 or more choices, things are wonky as well, but slightly differently (especially when deselecting a previous selected option)- have not tested properly.

You can play at lower resolutions, but you'll have to use the in-game graphics options for that. Background for Main Menu will remain screwed up, though. (Crossposting my own bug-report from, what, yesterday - no reply yet, but probably seen.)

Perhaps not an actual bug, but I consider it an issue, anyway. (And again, maybe already known, but ... 25+ pages.) [Description of the issue] Place of [Enchant] button on Item Information pop-up window very unintuitive. [DETAILED list of steps to reproduce the issue AND what to look for] Start a new game, open inventory and right-click on a weapon or armor. (See Screenshot) -Notice how there's a button is placed in the bottom middle of the popped up information window. Try to close the window. - Instead of clicking outside the window, automatically click the button at the bottom. -Notice you're now in the Enchant Menu, instead of back in your inventory. [Expected behaviour] ... There is a single, centered button placed at the bottom of a window. 20(+?) years of PC use has trained me to see this as an "Okay/Acknowledged/Dismissed" button. I know I can't be the only one. I don't care that it says "Enchant", the Expected Behaviour of a button placed in that location is to close that window, especially in the absence of an actual [x] in the upper right corner. Maybe add an actual "Close" button, and place 'em side by side at the bottom? [Other remarks / Comments] Eh, I might get used to it after clicking it inadvertently another 100 times or so... Heh. Deprogramming is hard.

Hey, this is probably already known, but I'm not going to scour 25 pages of topics to see if it's a duplicate. [Description of the issue] Screen resolution picker in Configuration tool does not work properly. Neither does the in-game option. ASSUMPTIONS: (made after playing around with it for too long) Pillars of Eternity Configuration tool: DOES set resolution for Obsidian Logo splash intro. DOES NOT set actual screen resolution once arrived at Main Menu DOES load appropriate art assets for selected resolution. In-Game OPTIONS -> GRAPHICS: DOES set actual screen resolution DOES NOT load appropriate art assets. DOES NOT retain appropriate art assets set in [Pillars of Eternity Configuration] tool after changing resolution. [DETAILED list of steps to reproduce the issue AND what to look for] -Be aware of the proper proportions for the background art on the main menu (see screenshots #1 & #2) 1)Previously, have run game the game at native screen resolution (1680x1050 in my case). 2)From Steam, start the game. In the Configuration tool, set resolution to 1280x720. Confirm [Windowed] is not checked. Click [Play!] -Notice how Obsidian Logo intro splash is played at 1280x720 -Notice how, upon arriving in the Main Menu, resolution has reverted to 1680x1050 (Check with your screen's OSD menu, or take a screenshot.) -Notice how the background is improperly scaled - image does not fill the entire screen. (Screenshot #3) 3)Click [Options], then [Graphics]. Set resolution to 1280x720. (Select [Yes] to save changes.) Exit options menu. -Notice how resolution has been set to 1280x720. -Notice how background is again, improperly scaled - image is too zoomed in. (Screenshot #4) 4)Exit Game Same problem happens the other way around : [WORKAROUND/FIX, CAN SKIP] Start Game, in Configuration tool, confirm that resolution is (still) set to 1280x720. Click [Play!] -Notice how Obsidian Logo intro splash is played at 1280x720 -Notice how Main Menu background is properly scaled. (Screenshot #2, again) Exit Game [/WORKAROUND] 5)Start Game, in Configuration tool, set resolution to 1680x1050 Click [Play!] -Notice how Obsidian Logo intro splash is played at 1680x1050 -Notice how Main Menu reverts to 1280x720 -Notice how Main Menu background is too zoomed in. (Screenshot #4 again, this time.) 6)Click [Options], then [Graphics]. Set resolution to 1680x1050. (Select [Yes] to save changes.) Exit options menu. -Notice how resolution has been set to 1680x1050. -Notice how background image in the main menu is improperly scaled. Too zoomed out, again. (See screenshot #3, again.) (You can play around with more settings, but I haven't been able to get a properly scaled main menu after changing the resolution through the in-game options menu. No (easy) access to a 1920x1080 screen to test that one, though.) [WORKAROUND/FIX, Can SKIP] Exit Game, Start Game, in Configuration tool, confirm that resolution is (still) set to 1680x1050. Click [Play!] -Notice how Obsidian Logo intro splash is played at 1680x1050 -Notice how Main Menu background is properly scaled. (Finishing up the doubling of screenshots, see screenshot #1.) [/WORKAROUND] [Expected behaviour] Both the configuration tool and in-game options menu should set the actual screen resolution and load the proper art assets. [Other Remarks] WORKAROUND: Start game, set desired resolution in-game, EXIT. Start game, set desired resolution in Configuration tool, PLAY. Unsure if the loading of (in)appropriate art assets is confined solely to Main Menu background, or if other parts of the game suffer as well. Have not tested in Windowed mode.