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So, the companions do seem to level up on their own before you get them...My Aloth was level 2 when I got him but Eder was level 3 when I got him. Not sure what talent he took at level 3...Weapon Focus Ruffian or Defender. Odd Hermit, can you edit your post with the locations for each NPC? Thanks edit: Found a link with Companion locations here http://guides.gamepressure.com/pillarsofeternity/guide.asp?ID=29835

Are the companions a static level no matter what level the PC is when they are recruited or are their tiers where they are higher or lower level depending on PC level? If it is the latter can someone who has recruited all 8 post a brief roar map on how to get them all ASAP?

I agree, I thought it might just be me. It does look cool but it is hard to read without being zoomed in.

Metacritic is useful, and for a lot of dev studios, important because publishers (and future publishers) care about it a lot. There are always trolls but in this case the user scores are running 7:1 positive to negative. And the critic score is 92. AAA titles are generally gonna get 7-9 from critics, but the user scores really tell the story. Controversial releases (DA:I comes to mind) might have a critic score of 80+ but nearly 1:1 positive to negative user scores.

You seeing that on the backer portal or? Got an email from Paradox directly. Thanks, I got the same kind of email about 20 minutes ago. Also, FWIW, I didn't have a Paradox account either, they must be using the info provided to them by Obsidian (which makes sense).

I got my email about 20 minutes ago. Expected delivery March 30-31. Are you a $250 backer as well? I say that because we have the same badge. In the email I got it detailed what was in the shipment, mousepad, shirt, postcard, signed CE box. Nothing about the hardcover collector's book? Same for you?

I was wondering about this as well.

Can we get an official update on the KS physical goods and what has shipped and what hasnt (and when everything will ship?). This has been handled poorly. Based on the poll, and previous Obsidian updates, a lot of backers were under the impression goods had already shipped, but only as of the 26th has anyone gotten a shipping notice, and it seems like more people have not got said notices than have.

So I had the game pre-loaded on Steam and played it today after it unlocked for probably 2-3 hours. Never saw any pre-order or KS items. Came across this thread and did what you said and the game started downloading all of the DLC, 1.8G in total. But most of it I had already downloaded from the Backer Portal. So I unchecked everything but the pre-order and KS items and they downloaded and installed instantly. When I loaded my game already in progress, the 4 items appeared in my inventory.

Another thread where people are reporting getting shipping emails today... http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71810-physical-box-ship-date/ So yeah, everything hasn't shipped and, it looks like, most haven't and nothing did before today, or we would have heard about it from a backer.

Are there patch notes somewhere?

You seeing that on the backer portal or?

Don't remember who posted it, but they said all items have been shipped, but the display in the backer portal hasn't updated to it yet. This includes Air Delivery from Obsidian to Paradox for shipment to the those outside of the US. As for what shipment type, unknown. Haven't heard anything about that. Yeah...based on the fact that no one has reported getting physical KS goods by now, in the US or anywhere, I am not sure that is the case, that all items have been shipped. I have asked this question on multiple threads now and the lack of an official response is alarming.

Gamefaqs is not a hardcore PC site. GameFaqs is the console equivalent to the Steam Community Forums. In other words, avoid at all costs cuz there be trolls everywhere. I agree that Gamefaqs is console focused but the mood there, IMO, is more friendly than Steam forums. There are still a lot of trolls but man the Steam forum for PoE is ridiculous. Literally every other thread is someone trolling about price, SP only, no romances, graphics, Obsidian's reputation (which is great), etc.

I have been trying to find this out as well. I think a lot of people assume that only the European KS physical goods were delayed but I have not been able to get anyone to tell me when exactly the US stuff shipped, or if it even has. I am trying to find out 1) When the US KS physical orders shipped or will ship 2) What carrier they are using and 3) Will there be tracking info on the backer portal.

Darren while you are here can you comment on when the KS physical goods shipped to backers, or if they have yet? What carrier was used and can we expect tracking info on the backer portal at some point?

Gamefaqs is not a hardcore PC site.

I popped over there to read the comments and just from skimming the past day or so it seems like the community is doing a good job of answering questions and pointing people in the right direction.

Have the physical goods from the KS been shipped to their final destinations yet, ie. to the backer provided addresses? Since no one has posted about having received anything (that I have seen), it seems like they may not have been. What carrier was/will be used (USPS, UPS, Fedex, etc.) and will there ever be tracking info provided via the backer portal?

This seems an odd point of view. Why did you pledge so much if you're seemingly concerned with what you could have saved by buying on Steam and Amazon? At the time, I was throwing money and support at a genre that was practically dead. That is why I said "...had I known how the KS would play out..." I don't regret my decision in 2012. That said, if I had known then, in 2012, that the stuff that was important to me would be available cheaper, and sooner, in March of 2015 I damn sure would not have spent $250 on it back then. Cheaper, yes. Sooner, no. Well it may sound dumb, but the 'Collectors Book' was the main reason I backed at $250 vs the $140 or $165 tiers. And that turned out to be available from Amazon for about $16 and it would have arrived by now, or at least before my $250 pledge. Again, "...had I known..."

This seems an odd point of view. Why did you pledge so much if you're seemingly concerned with what you could have saved by buying on Steam and Amazon? At the time, I was throwing money and support at a genre that was practically dead. That is why I said "...had I known how the KS would play out..." I don't regret my decision in 2012. That said, if I had known then, in 2012, that the stuff that was important to me would be available cheaper, and sooner, in March of 2015 I damn sure would not have spent $250 on it back then and I think Obsidian should be aware of that.

Media/reviewers getting keys ahead of backers is fine. Randos who bought the game on Steam tonight getting keys ahead of KS backers who paid for the game in October of 2012 is not. In the end assuming you can pre-load ahead of the unlock, it does not matter. But..."I had to warn you too many times about my money, Smokey. You see, it's the principle of the whole thing. There's principalities in this."

I won't speak for anyone else but I don't think you personally need to apologize for anything. I think that Obsidian should have been more transparent in what was going on though. Backers should have gotten keys before anyone else. That didn't happen and when it didn't happen Obsidian should have been in front of that situation explaining why. We still don't really know why. At the end of the day, I don't think anyone is going to be upset, backer wise, as long as they have the game pre-loaded and ready to play when it unlocks. They did explain. BAdler stated in a post the exact reason why Steam is pre-loading; ie, because they had to tell Steam to turn on pre-loading so our keys could actually work once given to us, and once Steam turned on pre-loading everybody who had pre-ordered automatically started pre-loading. If they hadn't told Steam to turn on pre-loading, then our keys would not work until tomorrow morning. You not know is not the same as them not communicating. I read that post and it did not communicate *why* the backers did not have keys yet, but the Steam purchasers did. It just explained the decision to enable pre-loading (which I am fine with). My money was spent years ago, at the very least I expected to get a key at the same time as someone who ordered on Steam a minute ago. That didn't happen and for all of the BAdler posts, that still has not been explained. The real reason is that key distribution is very complicated. i know it may not seem that way, but it is. Originally backers were not going to get the special editions. They didn't map to the backer tiers and backers could get their rewards through the portal. Enough people thought it would be a cool idea so we decided to create additional special editions that were special for the backers. These special editions mirror the hero/champion/royal, but come with even more content. Some people even got a few additional items in their tiers because we wanted to hook the backers up where possible. Needless to say it was a lot of work to remap the backend of the Backer Portal to support additional redeemables. This is just one example of the complications with distributing keys. There are many more. For contrast, a person who buys the game on Steam automatically has it added to their Steam account. No need to have that person do anything other than buy a tier. Soon you guys will have your keys, though. We have just been spot checking orders and redeemables since we had to rebuild the database to support the new redeemables. Things are looking good though, so it should be any minute. Thank you for continuing to engage and discuss. I very much appreciate that. Whatever happened, I will just say that had I known how the KS would play out, I would not have put up $250 years ago. And not just because I got a key late. I would have pre-ordered on Steam and bought the Collector book and Prima guide on Amazon ala carte and saved ~$150. Again I am not trying to be a ****, I love your studio and have enjoyed every Obsidian CRPG I have ever played. I hope my feedback is valuable to you (Obsidian) and hope you will take it into account going forward.

I won't speak for anyone else but I don't think you personally need to apologize for anything. I think that Obsidian should have been more transparent in what was going on though. Backers should have gotten keys before anyone else. That didn't happen and when it didn't happen Obsidian should have been in front of that situation explaining why. We still don't really know why. At the end of the day, I don't think anyone is going to be upset, backer wise, as long as they have the game pre-loaded and ready to play when it unlocks. They did explain. BAdler stated in a post the exact reason why Steam is pre-loading; ie, because they had to tell Steam to turn on pre-loading so our keys could actually work once given to us, and once Steam turned on pre-loading everybody who had pre-ordered automatically started pre-loading. If they hadn't told Steam to turn on pre-loading, then our keys would not work until tomorrow morning. You not know is not the same as them not communicating. I read that post and it did not communicate *why* the backers did not have keys yet, but the Steam purchasers did. It just explained the decision to enable pre-loading (which I am fine with). My money was spent years ago, at the very least I expected to get a key at the same time as someone who ordered on Steam a minute ago. That didn't happen and for all of the BAdler posts, that still has not been explained. *shakes head* Deliberate blindness is not something that explanations can fix. Even though it has actually been explained. Where was it explained why Steam buyers got keys ahead of KS backers? Because it wasn't in any of BAdler's posts. I paid for this game in October of 2012. Randoms who bought it on Steam tonight have a key and I don't. You don't see a problem there? I am not trying to be a **** about this. I love Obsidian and their games and I would not have forked over $250 for the promise of a game 2 1/2 years ago if I didn't. But, yeah I expected to get a key ahead of people that bought it years after me. That's all.

I won't speak for anyone else but I don't think you personally need to apologize for anything. I think that Obsidian should have been more transparent in what was going on though. Backers should have gotten keys before anyone else. That didn't happen and when it didn't happen Obsidian should have been in front of that situation explaining why. We still don't really know why. At the end of the day, I don't think anyone is going to be upset, backer wise, as long as they have the game pre-loaded and ready to play when it unlocks. I have spoken about reviewers and streamers in another thread. You can find my post on it here. One thing to remember regarding the distribution of keys and rewards is that Obsidian is creating a custom portal for everyone to choose which platform they would like for their keys. We are also letting people download all of their digital rewards from there too. I think it is a pretty cool website. It has been a lot of work to get everything up and running while concurrently working on the game, but hopefully it will make getting your rewards much easier. Thanks for being patient and understanding. I appreciate you continuing to engage your fans on this. And again, if all of the backers have the game pre-loaded and ready to unlock when the game releases at 9am PST March 26 then this is all water under the bridge with respect to who got keys when. I am just saying that as a KS backer that committed money years ago, I expected to have a key before, or at the very least at the same time, as someone that just bought the game on Steam tonight. That did not happen and it was a surprise to me.