Mallard

I think that the devs are aware the community feedback, and are listening to proposed solutions. They did make the God Challenges available at every difficulty in response to community requests! And SChin indicated on the Patch Beta forum that they are considering the request to mix Berath's Blessings with the challenges. Perhaps they are waiting for all of the God Challenges to be released so that they can experiment with mixing and matching them...

The ".sh" extension is attached to a shell script for Unix-like OSes (Linux in this case). For some reason GOG is offering the Linux patch alongside the Windows patch. The main game installer, patch, and DLCs are all broken for me too, I think it is from GOG's end. Hopefully this will be fixed soon!

When Pillars 1 reached ~50,000 backers, they announced the Endless Paths with 3 subterranean levels: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/319868 For every additional 2,500 new backers, an additional level would be added. They also included a new level for every 20,000 Facebook "likes". By the end of the campaign, the original 50,000 backers had been joined by ~27,500 = 11 x 2,500 new backers. There were over 20,000 Facebook likes. This meant 11+1 levels were added to the original 3, for a total of 15 levels. When Deadfire reached ~20,500 backers, they announced Fulvano's Voyage. https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire/updates/256 For every additional 1,500 new backers, a new part of Fulvano's Voyage would be revealed. By the end of the campaign, the original 20,500 backers had been joined by ~13,000 = ~8 x 1500 new backers. (If we use the original formula of 2,500 backers = 1 level, we get 13,000 = ~5 x 2500.) If Obsidian were to start with a "dungeon" like Fort Deadlight, it would have a top level, a main level, and 1 subterranean level. Adding in an additional 8 levels, this would give a total of 9 subterranean levels. (Or using the original formula and adding 5 new levels, this would give a total of 6 subterranean levels.) I have no reason to think that Obsidian is using this formula, but it would be cool to have a dungeon that is 9 levels deep. Or even 6 levels. I think of Durlag's Tower, Dragon's Eye, Watcher's Keep...they were all 5-6 levels deep.

Berath's Blessings are the rewards you receive for attaining achievements. A sort of "New Game +" option that allows you to start the game with special advantages (explored world map, gold, exp, equipment, etc.). They are not meant to be used on your first playthrough, so make sure you finish the game at least once before worrying about Berath's Blessings!

Hi Baramos, It's true -- any achievement tied to the "no pause" challenge would be unobtainable for those unable to complete it. That's OK! Some people won't ever complete the "solo mode" or "trial of iron" either. But those kinds of challenges -- the ones that remove core features from gameplay (expert mode, solo mode, trial of iron) -- have been kept separate from the God Challenges. My suggestion is that "no pause" fits in better with those options, than with the special "God Challenges". I agree with esyvjrt that the God Challenges have been given more prominence than other achievements. Many of us are excited because they add mechanics or make intriguing tweaks to existing systems, but don't remove features altogether. I made this thread in response to other players' feedback. I can sense that I'm not alone, in being very interested in the achievement for completing them all at once ("Challenge the Pantheon!"). Like me, a number of players have pointed to Magran as a barrier, however. By making God Challenges available at any difficulty, it shows that the devs are listening to player feedback. I hope they will consider this thread and other suggested changes to the God Challenges going forward. The God Challenges have generated a lot of excitement in the community, we all want them to turn out well.

Hi Yosharian, My suggestion to move "no-pause" to a separate achievement is to preserve it for those players who still want to attempt it. I don't want to remove other players' choices or achievements! Consider the "solo mode" challenge; the devs didn't make it a God Challenge, but instead made it a *separate* difficulty option (Triple Crown Solo vs. Triple Crown). This was what I had in mind for the "no-pause" challenge. I appreciate everyone's feedback, and hope the devs will take it into account along with my suggestion!

I made a thread containing suggestions for Hylea's challenge on the patch beta forum: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/106475-suggestion-to-the-devs-for-hyleas-challenge/ Interested to hear your guys' suggestions!

... not sure how one would not know what the weather is, in their line of sight. Maybe you mean the storms don't appear on maps? Sorry, yes, I meant that the clouds on the world map not be visible to the player, so they are not so easily avoided. One idea is to have the screen gradually darken, with thunder sounds & lightning flashes, as the player gets closer to the invisible world map "trigger" for a storm. That said, fog-of-war on the world map might make the storms more threatening...

I was wondering about a couple of points regarding Hylea's challenge: - How is Vela's presence explained for players who did not take her with them in Pillars 1 (or worse, sacrificed her)? - Why would a ruthless Watcher, untroubled by the deaths of party members or playing solo, experience a "Game Over" upon the death of some child? - Why would a benevolent Watcher keep a vulnerable child with them at all times, no matter the danger? I have an idea that hopefully address these points: Hylea takes a small fragment of the Watcher's soul and: - places it within Vela if she is present or - shapes it into a celestial bird (using Orbit the "cosmic bird" model) if Vela is not present From a role-playing perspective: - the celestial bird ("Orbit") would make sense for those who do not have Vela in their playthrough - even the most ruthless Watcher would have a justification for keeping a small child/bird containing a fragment of their soul close to them at all times; their survival would be connected! From a game-play perspective: I was also wondering if this challenge is achievable without access to the "Withdraw" spell. (e.g. What if the player is using "Solo" mode as a non-priest)? Some ideas to make the challenge less strict: - it is not necessarily an immediate "Game Over" if Vela/Orbit is knocked out - when Vela/Orbit is knocked out, the Watcher receives a severe penalty that lasts until Vela/Orbit is resurrected - like party members, Vela/Orbit receives an injury when knocked out, for a maximum of 3 before permanent death - if Vela/Orbit is permanently killed (i.e. they receive more than 3 injuries), then it is "Game Over" I hope you'll consider these suggestions, and thanks again for the great work on Deadfire. ========================= Suggestions for the other god challenges: MAGRAN: An open letter to the devs about Magran's challenge SKAEN: Fog-of-war on the world map, storms are invisible WAEL (upcoming): Random *text* (not combat) encounters on the world map

The devs have done a fantastic job with Deadfire, and I am excited by the god challenges. In fact, there is an upcoming achievement tied to completing all god challenges at once ("Holy Crown" = triple crown with all god challenges). Having experimented with Magran's challenge, I've come to the conclusion that I will never be able complete it, regardless of combat speed or difficulty level. This is because removing the ability to pause introduces a new dependence on physical reflexes. For those of us with physical challenges, no amount of practice will improve things. In contrast to Magran, the other god challenges do not *remove* features; they add new mechanics (like Abydon) or increase the potency of existing mechanics (like Skaen). They rely on strategy, tactics, and resource management. I understand that the god challenges are optional, and that the devs cannot tune the game to accommodate every person's unique strengths and weaknesses. But for the sake of consistency, and in fairness to players interested in the upcoming "Holy Crown" achievement, I would like to make a suggestion: My suggestion is that the "no-pause" challenge be moved to a separate achievement that is not one of the god challenges (such as expert mode, solo mode, trial of iron, etc.). Moreover, I would reiterate my suggestion in another thread that the combat speed restriction be removed. My suggested replacement for Magran's challenge is a modest experience penalty. A feature to reduce experience gain has been requested by many members of the community. Moreover, it makes sense in terms of Magran's portfolio: undergoing experience as a form of..."durance". An experience penalty could be implemented in several different ways: - as a sort of "fatigue system" (i.e. a debuff that reduces experience gain, which increases with game time and is only reset by resting) - a straightforward increase in the amount of experience needed (i.e. 25% to 50% more experience, like in the IE Mod for Pillars 1) - a *removal* of experience outright in response to player actions (e.g. resting, incurring an injury, or using empower removes 10% of experience outright) I hope you'll consider these suggestions, and thanks again for the great work on Deadfire.

In addition to the good suggestions in this thread, I would add: - Magran's challenge should not prohibit *slow combat speeds* for those of us who have handicaps on physical reflexes, no-pause combat on normal speed is simply unworkable but slowest combat speed + no pause could *still* be a fun and reasonable challenge - Skaen's challenge should extend fog of war to travel by ship on the world map the radius could be increased by lantern upgrades, spyglass, etc. (and the storms should be invisible, so the player doesn't know when one is being entered!)

Sorry for the necro again, but I think there is a canonical answer to the question: https://d1u5p3l4wpay3k.cloudfront.net/eternitywiki/0/03/291650_20180122155550_1.png?version=891805a74cdd515270d9d2992c0a2c4d The original campaign is "Pillars of Eternity: The Hollowing of the Drywood". The expansion is "Pillars of Eternity: The White March" (in two separate DLCs, part 1 and part 2). The sequel is "Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire". The sequel's DLCs are "Pillars of Eternity II: Beast of Winter" "Pillars of Eternity II: Seeker, Slayer, Survivor" "Pillars of Eternity II: The Forbidden Sanctum"

One problem is that there's only a finite number of text adventures that can be written; eventually the player will exhaust them. I had an idea for *repeatable* encounters to make the world feel more inhabited: Set up random encounters with enemies, but the "combat" would be handled via checks and dice rolls *within* the text adventure. In other words, the player wouldn't be forced into a loading screen and then in-engine combat with Smokey the Xaurip; the text adventure would describe how the xaurip wounded Eder's foot and made off with some of the party's gold and (replaceable) supplies.

I previously made a thread thanking Obsidian for the absence of random *combat* triggers on the world map: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/100032-a-huge-thank-you-for-not-having-random-combat-triggers-on-the-world-map/ While a number of people seemed to agree, almost everyone seemed to be in support of the random text adventures you encounter -- e.g. the skuldr attacking the huana girl when transitioning between districts in Neketaka. Text adventures don't involve loading screens, and those were one of the main things I feared for random combat triggers. Here are some ideas: - have at least a few text encounters unique to each island; this would help make each island more distinct - implement a fatigue mechanic; if you travel too many days without resting, your party members interrupt via a text interaction (for example, a character is so tired that they trip on a root and incur a penalty until rest, as described in a text adventure) - implement fog-of-war while travelling by ship (don't show storms on world map, instead depict rain, wind, thunder etc. as player gets closer to the invisible trigger) (the "lantern" upgrade and using a spyglass could expand the radius of sight) - have the player randomly encounter ships that don't appear on the world map (ensure that they have the option to avoid combat somehow, such as through paying a hefty toll) Another advantage of text encounters is that they don't involve voice acting, so I wouldn't think they'd be as expensive to produce as DLC. (But I'll be the first to say that I have no experience working on games, and don't mean to downplay the amount of work that might be involved!)

Having finished the DLC's main quest, I wanted to highly recommend this DLC to people who may be on the fence; I thought it was outstanding. I'm a story person, not a combat person, so I had low expectations for an arena-based DLC. But the fights were all fun and challenging, on Veteran difficulty and even with all lvl 20 characters. (If I have a quibble with the DLCs, it's that the different loading screens prevent them from fitting into the game as seamlessly as I would like -- but I think that could easily be fixed with the UABE.)

Hi Jon, Thanks for the clarification. I want to strongly urge the devs to have the Guardian always be encountered, it really is important to have an epic battle at the end of a combat-themed RPG like this. And the design of the Guardian and the battle clearly had so much work put into it, it's a shame to have players miss out one of the most impressive fights in the game! Instead of being absent altogether, the Guardian could show up with some kind of injury from the water dragon (not necessarily "injured" health if that would mean skipping some phases of the fight, maybe a combat penalty of some kind?) Hope you guys will consider the suggestion, and thanks again for doing such a great job with Deadfire.

One cool idea I had for role-playing (to be clear, *not* implemented officially by Obsidian, just for the player's fun): Activate a God Challenge if your character angered a god in POE1 (i.e. pledged to do with the souls what they asked and then reneged, or did not complete their quest at all). Eothas' and Woedica's would be enabled every game (I'm nervous to see what Woedica's challenge is!). This would make me a lot more nervous about offending the gods in POE1! Especially Magran...

There are a number of people reporting that the Guardian of Ukaizo is not appearing. It has consistently been referred to as an unintended bug... However, at least one user has argued that is *not* a bug; the Guardian is apparently *NOT* meant to appear in some cases. https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/9hkpyu/no_final_boss_spoilers/e6fmv5b/ Just wanted to clarify, is this the intended design? If so, then my personal recommendation is to have the player fight at least some form of the Guardian, it helps to make up for the fact that the player cannot actually fight Eothas. It's a great fight, it would be a shame for players to miss out on it!

Ah, so Rymrgand must be Ned Stark: both are always going on about how "winter is coming". Let's hope that the "Beast" of Winter comes out before the "Winds" of Winter.

BG2 had most sidequests available near the start of the game, and I think most people felt that was to the game's benefit. Deadfire does an excellent job following in its footsteps, especially Neketaka. But BG2 also wisely decided to ship the player off to Spellhold midway through the game, removing them from the open-world of sidequests. The player goes through Brynnlaw, Spellhold, probably the Sahuagin City, and finally the Underdark... It ends up being an unexpectedly long detour, but I think that ends up being one of BG2's major strengths. There's something very satisfying about returning to the open-world after such an epic journey through so many exotic locations! Even better, the player gets a second chance to return and complete those sidequests that were simply too challenging before (the Twisted Rune, Kangaax, etc.) I really think Deadfire would have benefited from this type of mid-game break from the open-world. Imagine if the player had been trapped by the eruption of the volcano within the rathun caverns; this would be the start of an incredible journey: - a desperate escape into the bowels of the earth, where even the rathun are reluctant to delve... - from there, you discover a forgotten underground Engwithan city, like Sun-in-Shadow...reveal important backstory on the Wheel... - with Ngati's aid you are forced to travel *underwater*, as she creates a tunnel of air, like Moses parting the Red Sea...you see whales and giant squids and those monsters mentioned in the POE1 book studying you curiously through the wall of water... - finally, you return to the surface, emerging from some abandoned ruins and causing the local villagers to initially worship you out of fear, like C3PO and the Ewoks... And with that, you are finally returned to the open-world, given a second chance to complete any sidequests that had been left hanging. *Then* you can make the decision to travel to the endgame (Ukaizo).

I propose that Obsidian implement a small icon of a kraken, with googly eyes, in the lower right corner instead. Named "Shippy", he can dispense the breaking news and other helpful tips: "I see you want to create a custom history. Would you like my help with the format?" "Hello, I'm Shippy. Did you know you can click on the News tab to hide or expand it?" I would honestly prefer Shippy to the current situation...

To be honest, I think Wael's appearance would be much improved if he didn't have the ridiculous cheshire cat grin.

I can confirm that, when clicking on the offline patch to download, it should be 1.8 GiB but is in fact only 572 MiB. I tried to patch with what I downloaded, but get "The source file is corrupted."

I love Deadfire, but at first, I couldn't say the same for ship combat. I hated it! But once I'd upgraded my ship, I began to enjoy the minigame. Like many here, I soon found boarding a ship to be a quick end to any conflict; but refraining from that strategy, it soon became fun to try and sink enemy vessels. Having said all that...there's still the surprise & disappointment one feels upon experiencing ship combat for the first time. When advertised as a main feature of an isometric RPG, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect ship combat, like the rest of the game, to take place in-engine. What if Obsidian retained the current turn-based ship combat, but demonstrated the actions in the game engine, rather than by text? i.e. When combat starts, load a map with the two ships (like the "board a ship" combat map). When a cannon is fired, actually depict a ship's cannon firing. If a crew member is injured, actually show them collapse. Ship movement doesn't have to be animated; simply fade to black when turning or changing distance from the other ship. The text based interface could still be presented when deciding *if* to engage in combat -- so as to avoid constant loading screens every time the player encounters a ship. In the same way the stronghold was improved in the first game with the DLCs, I hope Obsidian will consider improving the ship combat with some of the DLC funds -- it's a fun minigame, but I do think it can (and should) be so much more in a game focused on the sea!

Well, there's always the ZZT engine.