Kinowek

You're right OP, the supply mechanic is fundamentally flawed. What it mainly makes me do in Patch 3.00 is just avoid bringing the Vancian casters(Priest, WIzard, Druid), but that's another thread entirely. Chanter/Cipher domination! Unfortunately the fix isn't simple. Most of the game has been designed around that rest mechanic, and Obsidian is kind of stuck with it, at least for this first Pillars game. I'd say get the IEMod if you want to play the game more your way, but unfortunately the IEMod developers seem to have quit. Oh well, the limited rest mechanic is only an issue the first time you play, after that you will understand the meta-game enough to basically ignore it. I agree with you though, it adds tedium, in my opinion. Once a player grasps tactics enough, and has played or scouted enough to see/know enemy locations and strength, the limit is meaningless, as there are convenient stacks of logs all over the place anyway. This should be the first indication that the mechanic is broken or at least sub-optimal, level designers being forced to add rest 'tokens' to dungeons. Don't get me wrong, I love the majority of Pillars of Eternity, but the rest mechanic and the recent change to Vancian casters both seem like the could be vastly improved. I'd prefer if they went back to a version of the fatigue system, where your characters got a debuff after a certain amount of adventuring/traveling, maybe increased dramatically after a lot of fighting or something, but simultaneously allow unlimited resting in any 'defensible' spot, ie Lockable rooms in dungeons, pacified wilderness, or something. That may be a more dramatic change than Obsidian is willing to do, but it'd be a fun mod to try to implement. As it is, if you rest enough, you lose your Inn Bonus, which ends up being quite strong with some of the later Inns.

Well, one thing to remember: even if a character has zero points in stealth, they can still Enter Stealth mode and give you that much more space to move up and get into firing range, while being out of Detection range. I am trying to remember if you can easily get 110 or so deflection by level 11, I'm pretty sure it's doable but your Fighter or Paladin would of course need a shield, a +9 Deflection ring or Bracer, as well as Superior Deflection taken as a talent, etc. I'm not really a fan of having too many characters set up that tanky, more damage and more crowd control is always the better choice. Monk by default should choose distance closing talents as well as some zero wound requiring stuns, to help out. Paladins can easily get almost as much Deflection as a Fighter, while holding a decent shield and possibly a hatchet or Interference granting weapon, without sacrificing the Zealous aura for better accuracy. As far as monk wounds, it doesn't help to get shot 10 times getting close to your opponents, they need to be in melee range to make up for the damage they take getting wounded. Still, monks are extremely strong, and if he has to use a shield while he runs up, then switch to dual fists or dual 1handers of your choice, that's not terrible either. Not sure what the rest of your party composition is like, but it sounds like you don't have a great deal of ranged DPS. Even your melee tank guys can have an pistol, arquebus or arbalest on a 2nd weapon set, fire them all off from stealth or even just outside of detection range to even the odds before you start the fight. You don't have to wait for the enemy to initiate combat, just focus fire on enemies from the outer limit of their detection with 6 Arbalests or Arquebuses and you are good to go.

IEmod also allows you to turn off Autosave every time you enter or exit a building. That's a life saving feature honestly. Really speeds up gameplay. Also Sneaking at full speed. 3.0 is playable without it, but I miss the minor changes like the above from IEMod a lot.

I experienced a similar version of this bug, although I am not sure if they would classify this as a feature or not. No one in the active party, whether they are NPCs or my PC, kept their experience over the level 14 cap from White March part 1 when I installed part 2. However, everybody in the keep instantly leveled up to 16 from all of their bonus experience. gog.com version 2.7.0.13(although it's listed as 3.00 on the gog game page for Pillars) Although to be fair, this save set I am using is from vanilla day one first character, repeatedly patched. it has a number of issues(mostly GUI) not present in newer games I've started.

That sucks, and I hope it gets fixed soon, but from a roleplay standpoint, you have to admit, it serves you right for binding some poor souls to a machine for eternity.

*EDIT* sorry, you're right Karkarov, potentially spoilerish Names removed, tactics ideas left alone*** Like most battles in Pillars of Eternity, you can stack the odds in your favor a bit by starting off with an Alpha Strike or Fusillade of gun and crossbow fire from Stealth, to instantly kill 1 or more of the enemy group. (Alpha Strike/Fusillade just refer to everybody on your team shooting at once, ideally focusing on 1-2 enemies) Other options include, starting off with an Oil slick from stealth, or even Fireball from stealth, since you have [Wizard], then send your [Melee] in to beat on their most dangerous healers, then take out range, then take out melee. Or a combination of the above, Stealth Oil Slick from [Wizards], or Stealth Stun lock from [Ciphers or Chanters], while everybody else fires high damage firearms or Arbalests to instakill their best healer. A less used option would be to move one character with a bit of Stealth skill up, let him/her start to get detected, then immediately run back. You can pull apart some groups with this, fighting 1 or 2 at a time instead of all of them. Pillars enemy AI will walk towards you while the circle is yellow or unfilled red, and will only detect at full red of course. Classic MMO style trick I feel dirty about using, but sometimes you need to break up large groups, either to farm [Certain Weapon] requirements or just to not waste a ton of hp and spells in your party. As far as defenses go, breakpoint seems to be around 110+ Deflection before your tanks can really start to laugh off massed enemy ranged like [certain Species] use. I really recommend getting your main tank to 125+ Deflection to be safe, with a ton of extra Pierce DR(Full plate +Pierce Res enchant). Then send that tank in first, while your debuffers bring down enemy aiming ability and/or start stunlocking/prone-locking them, if you want to avoid Alpha Strikes or Stealth ambush tactics.

People with the beta, it was mentioned in one of the other threads, they've changed the Chanter notification somehow(up until now, it's a small numeral in the lower right) ? Supposedly now it no longer shows how many chants are stored up? I hope that's not the case of course, as it makes casting chanter spells a bit more of a hassle obviously. Anyway, is it a bug or feature that they've removed the numerical count, if that's the case?

It's a terrible change, apparently in response to a vocal minority of people complaining on these forums about balance in a single player game. Luckily, IEMod already allows you to change all spells to per encounter, so if you disagree with this change like I do, download IEMod. Hopefully the IEMod guy(s) are quick to update for version 3.0 in a few weeks! Per-Rest spells just lead to people trudging back to an Inn or using campfires... honestly the rest system needs to be reworked, and all spells should be balanced around per Encounter, but I digress. Slightly related topic, removing 'trash' fights seems like it will dramatically decrease the ability to level up certain Soulbound weapons that have high kill requirements. Another mistake, which can eventually be fixed by mods, much slower than the per rest/per encounter spell change.

Ok, apparently I wasn't the only one a bit concerned about the hat situation... either one of you guys have the beta on steam? What battles / how many battles got removed? I assume at some point we'll get a hat crafting mod, although it may take awhile.

If you have the gog.com version, or any non-Steam version I'm assuming, the save directory is under: (For Windows) C:\Users\<your account>\Saved Games\Pillars of Eternity (For Mac) \Library\Application Support\Pillars of Eternity\Saved Games (For Linux) \Home\.local\share\PillarsOfEternity\SavedGames Found somewhere on these forums, source: LadyCrimson. Search button. :D

Hello, I just wanted to ask about these apparent reductions in combat going on in the beta 3.0 patch? According to Update #105: * Does the combat in the last third of the main game (from Elmshore on) feel better? Specifically, have we removed enough battles that feel like trash mobs or filler? Have we improved the fights there so they are a) challenging and b) more interesting? * The same question, but on levels 7, 8, and 11 of the Endless Paths of Od Nua. Well, Pillars is well set on the path of not giving experience for battles (not my preference, but apparently some people like that?), but unfortunately Soulbound weapons were also added in. So any removal of combat hampers the game severely in my opinion. Some of these Soulbound weapons(not the Grey Sleeper, which is very well done) require quite a few kills by ONLY the character wielding that soulbound weapon. 25 or 50 kills per level up, removing any battles is going to make those upgrades simply out of reach. The staff comes to mind as the worst offender, and there was a bug for awhile that wouldn't even count the kills it did get. Sure, once you have played through the entire game, then you know that you basically have to 'save' packs of enemies to level up Soulbound weapons, but the first playthrough can basically be ruined, especially if you go to the expansion late in the game. That said, I do enjoy the concept of the Soulbound weapons, they are a nice alternative to just Crafting up unique weapons, and they require some combat strategies to level up quickly. Only problem is the sheer number of kills required on some of them. I assume we will see more in Part 2 of White March, exacerbating the problem of not enough enemies left alive in the world, late game. * The value/feeling of Athletics and Survival, both on their own and relative to other skills. Do any of the Survival bonuses feel way out of line with the other bonuses? * How do Knockout Injuries feel? Are they too punishing? Not punishing enough? Do any injuries feel way out of line with other injuries? Athletics and Survival are both a bit boring, but currently marginally useful. I'm looking forward to potential changes, but can't try them out until this all gets released on Gog.com Just please don't remove the combat fatigue bonus from Athletics, I find that to be pretty useful for more fragile characters. Knockout injuries seem like overkill(again, without being able to see the beta implementation) since we already have Knockdown, Stun, Paralyze, etc. Either the injury prevents play, and you have to go rest, or it's meaningless and you ignore it. Neither one seems worth the time. If it breaks the character permanently, I vote against it, as it'll just make people reload 10 times to avoid getting the injury. Thanks, I'm really enjoying the current 2.3x or whatever it is patch, this game has come a long way from the original release. I'm really looking forward to the Stronghold additions, hopefully it's all relatively bug free by February 16th! Somebody, somewhere, allow Crafting buffs on Hats! The best hats in the game have no stats, while the best stat-wise helms look like crap.

Hrm, that's good then, maybe it's just taking Obsidian/Gog time to get that version patched. As it is now, gog.com people are better off NOT patching to 1.03, it seems. *EDIT* Reinstalled, Gog version, Backer Item patch, 1.03 Patch, issue still persists. Game is technically still completable if I never swap out Eder or Durance, for some reason the bug does not seem to effect Harvais or Kana at level 12, just Eder and Durance. Level 11 characters do not seem to be effected? I wish I had earlier saves post patch 1.03 to try out.

Also, this seems to be an actual game breaking issue, at least for a few of us. It's not even listed in the "Known Issues" post though? I would argue this needs to be a very high priority bug fix, that more people will probably start experiencing when they start to cap out at level 12.

Unfortunately, this bug isn't fixed by restarting PoEt(not to be confused with Path of Exile!) and loading again, at least for me, STiAT. Gog.com version, patch v1.0.3.0524, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. I am actually getting a possibly worse version of this bug, when trying to switch Level 12 characters: Not only will all of the items vanish on the characters who get swapped out and swapped back, but Eder will usually vanish from the party and the Inn/Stronghold menu and be unable to be added to the party at all. Naked clones of Durance and Eder seem to stay in the game where they were before I swapped them out also, but you cannot get them to rejoin through dialogue. Before the party switch, in any Inn or Stronghold, all is well: Before After the first party Switch, Level 12 characters leave naked clones behind: After After switching back, actual Eder or Durance in my case, has no items, and will vanish from the party if I Save and Reload: Itemless Eder Here are three save game files also, Before, After Switch, After Switch back: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4demtv0cappp6dx/PoEt_gog_patch1.03_Broken_Party_Swap.7z?dl=0 I've tried closing the game and reloading, if I reload the 3rd save, Eder is just gone from the game, aside from his naked clone. I'm going to try reinstalling from scratch and see if that helps... this error was not present as far as I remember, in the default Gog version, seems new to patch 1.03.0524.

I have the same issue, Speed boots, on the Player Character only, seem to continually get disabled either after an enemy spell slows the player(and ends after combat is over), STILL slows the player, zone change, etc. At the same time, I have a second pair of Speed Boots(+3) on the Weeping Mother and she is not affected at all. Definitely agree with bugged speed boots on Player Character in patch 1.03, seems to not affect party members?

Well, Disengagement takes some getting used to , but you can 'block' enemy disengagement attacks with almost every class, either through ridiculous Deflection amounts on Shield using Fighters, or escape abilities on most of the other classes, or just tying up an enemy by attacking with somebody else while you run somebody away. From a gameplay standpoint, they have to allow enemy NPCs to get hits in if you just turn your back and run, otherwise the game would be even easier. I do agree with you, Keyser, from a purely logical view. Moral of the story: Don't run unless they are knocked down, or target better with your AoE, or buff your Fighter so he takes way less damage from that AoE. Eventually your fighter is going to laugh off most attacks anyway.

They are one time use, but shouldn't be. It's ridiculous that you would break your hammer or crowbar or mind boggingly, your grappling hook and rope, the first time you use them. The cost is also trivial, making the mechanic of limited use items pointless, in my opinion. That said, I like the opportunities to actually USE them, I like those Grimm's Fairty Tale style interludes. I just think it'd make for a better game for them to be infinite uses. My unlimited stash has about 5-15 of each of those now, at Level 9. With tens of thousands of gold on top of that, they are effectively unlimited. Not a big deal though, Mods will solve this for everybody eventually; if you want them massively more expensive, there will be a mod for that. If you want them infinite use like me, there will be a mod for that too.

As CaptainMace said, guns will seem great right up until you get or make some decent Arbalests(the winch crossbow). Arbalests have the highest Interrupt rating(base), most damage, same speed of reloading as an Arqebus, and longer range (12m vs 10m). They also can inherently knock down enemies(cause Prone state). Arbalests are the best. That said, I gave a certain NPC priest and chanter upgraded Arqebuses, simply because they either fit thematically or came with one. Ranged weapons in general are strong in this game, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

This seems like a very successful troll thread. Assuming it isn't, we can still assume Obsidian has zero plans currently to port Eternity to any console. Even if they did, the console players would be at a huge disadvantage, missing out on the PC post release mod scene (assuming Hell hasn't frozen over and this game gets ported to consoles WITH moddability). I also doubt they want to spend the money for PS4/Xbox one licensing or porting, for a dramatically reduced audience. This isn't exactly Call of Madden 2014, it's an isometric party based rpg with 2d backgrounds.

I voted no, not because I wouldn't like to see crazy encounters, but because this is not something the developers need to spend time/money on at this point in development(Still aiming for a release mid 2014) OP, as Walsingham said, mod it in yourself, or take advantage of any number of Tactics/Sword Coast Stratagems/Improved Anvil/Improved Encounters/Super Firkraag type mods that will invariably pop up post release. Honestly, I'm looking forward to the crazy mods that come out almost more than the vanilla game. :D Super Encounters are almost expected to show up as mods for IE type games, at least among the players I know. Whether it's game breaking stuff, or just minor tweaks here and there, it's almost a certainty that you will have stuff to test your godlike character with shortly after release.

It'd be great if there was a fully fleshed out, totally selfish, sociopathic path available, just for a change of pace/subsequent playthroughs. It'd really be a first in gaming, even considering MotB. However something tells me this limited funding, retro oriented game is not going to break the mold for well written thoroughly evil questlines. This isn't necessarily a bad thing right out of the gate; assuming the game does well, and they get their soft funding from DLC-preorders/bonus addons, maybe they will be able to write a strong evil path with real roleplay options for a future expansion. I think unfortunately we will have to settle for "Save the Town/Burn it to the ground for more coin" kind of choices here. Keep in mind though, it wouldn't just be doubling their work, it could exponentially increase their workload, if they have to fully flesh out every 'evil' choice with expanding quest options such as you mention, OP. (Such as taking over a group of bandits and leading them from that point on , etc.) In a world of limited funding and pre-development Kickstarters, this probably won't be a realistic option.

I voted no, because I do not feel durability mechanics add anything to the game but annoyance. I'm a little shocked the poll is even as close as it is, surely fans of past IE games would have no tolerance whatsoever for their Crom Faeyrs breaking on some gnoll's skull? It isn't challenging, it isn't fun to repair your weapons/armor every X fights. It's a chore. As others have said, single player games do not need gold sinks. This isn't an MMO, and theoretically we will be spending money on the Stronghold anyway? If for some weird reason they actually include Durability in the final release, I will be using one of the many mods to remove durability as soon as they are available(hopefully). Conversely, if somebody actually wants Durability, I am sure there will be mods for it very soon after release as well, so DO NOT WASTE TIME WORKING ON DURABILITY, Obsidian. If you feel crafting isn't strong enough, improve crafting/make more recipes/more options. Do not add a game wide penalty to give crafters something to do. That cure is worse than the disease.