Update #54 - New Challenges Approach

[Mikey Dowling]

Greetings, Watchers,
 
We hope that those of you who have journeyed to Harbingers' Watch have enjoyed your stay (and according to the Steam reviews, you have!), but there is still plenty more to come in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. In the timeline that we shared with you in Update 53, you may have noticed that this month will see the release of Abydon and Skaen's God Challenges. Take a look below for descriptions of those challenges, what's new in Hotfix Patch 2.0.1, and a sneak peek of what's to come!
 
Challenge Yourself

• Abydon - The god of the forge is ready to challenge you with forged items you carry. The more you use weapons and armor, the more they will wear down and become "Damaged". This modifier will make them progressively worse and eventually destroy them unless the mods are removed through Enchantments. Choose the items you will wear into battle wisely!
• Skaen - With Skaen's challenge, when indoors or at night, fog of war encroaches more. Torches and lanterns can partially offset the additional fog of war, but only a little.

We look forward to seeing what you talented Watchers are able to do with these challenges enabled. Remember, if you're streaming these challenges, let us know by tagging us on Twitter so we can go and hang out with you!
 
That's One Mega Boss
 
Next month we'll be bringing our first Mega Boss to Deadfire. As we've said in some interviews recently, the Mega Bosses are end game challenges that you can take on in the Deadfire and are meant to test your party's mettle. These fights are meant to be for high level parties, so don't expect to be able to tackle them right when you get the Defiant out on the seas of the archipelago. We'll have more information on who the first Mega Boss will be in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!
 

Patch 2.0.1

Today we've released a patch that fixes some of the bigger issues some players have had since the launch of "Beast of Winter." Our forums have the full patch notes, but some of the highlights are:

• Retrained party members will no longer gain Knock Down, Constant Recovery, Battle Axe Proficiency, or Mace Proficiency when they should not.
• The autosave feature works as intended after jumping into the pit in the Beast of Winter DLC and allows for progression.
• Party members will no longer disappear near the portal in Sunken Crown.
• Party members stay together when using the portal in Sunken Crown when it's flooded.

As always, we want to continue to work with you all to help make Deadfire an even better game. If there are issues you come across, let us know through our Support Portal and here on our forums. We'll assist you as soon as we can!
 

Lastest Interviews

Executive Producer and Lead Programmer, Adam Brennecke, was on the air to talk about Deadfire and what's to come in future patches. Check out his insights on the Origin PC Live show a couple of weeks ago.
 
He also had the chance to talk to the crew of Don't Hate the Geek, who was awesome enough to relay some questions from the community!
 

 
Enjoy the interviews and be we'll be sure to share others in the future!

 

Developer Insights

In our latest stream on our Twitch channel, Pillars of Eternity Programmer, Brian Macintosh, joined Community Manager, Aarik Dorobiala, to highlight some of the mods that the awesome Deadfire modding community has put together. During the stream we showed off:

• Enhanced User Interface by Spherikal and Xaratas
• Panther Animal Companion by SilentRage99
• More Priest Subclasses by NocturnalTrance
• Unity Console for POE2 by TheHologram

All of the mods shown can be downloaded from the Nexus through their links above. To find more Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire mods, head over to the Nexus and see what the community has been putting together!
 
As always, if you subscribe to our channel on Twitch, you get access to emotes that you can then use across all of Twitch. All money we receive from Twitch subscriptions and cheers goes to benefit the Children's Hospital of Orange County. You can also donate to our Extra Life team and help raise money for the children's hospital that way. We'll be doing a marathon stream in November where we'll have an entire weekend of games and special guests while raising money for a great cause, so be sure to join us then as well. Do it "For the chids!"
 

Physical Backer Rewards Update

It's been an incredible relief to hear that some backers have received tracking information for their shipments, or, better yet, the rewards themselves! For those of you who haven't and have any questions, check out our support page with the latest news on physical rewards, or send us an email at support@obsidian.net. Please also whitelist support@vsevil.net if you're in the Americas or Oceania and have yet to receive your rewards or check your spam folder for an email containing tracking information!
 

Community Spotlight

The fan art we've been getting from all of you has been so great to see. Thank you to everyone who has contributed fan art for the past few updates. We also want to let you know that the community page on eternity.obsidian.net now displays fan art that we see come up on Twitter (with proper credit to the artist). Be sure to head to the page and see if your art made it up there!
 
If you have art that you'd like to see shared in these updates, be sure to send us an email at fanart@obsidian.net!
 


By: Dokusama
 
 

By: ArtMamoon
 
 

By: Trans_osaurus
 
 

By: PristinePastel
 
 

By: Sorael_A
 
 
Current Timeline
 

 
Thank you again for your continued support! If you have any issues with the game, contact us through our support portal to help you on your journey.
 
Cheers,
 
The Deadfire team
 
Reach out to us on our various social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or here on our forums) and let us know your comments, your critiques, and what you love about the game.
 
Did you miss our last update? Check it out!

[fortuntek]

Not sure if either of those challenge modes are for me, but I like the idea

 

I haven't gotten around to trying Beast of Winter yet (though I did buy it) because I kinda burnt myself out by playing through the game 4-5 times already and starting multiple other partial playthroughs... Am seriously tempted to try my hand at the new Mega boss though! I just hope we get some kind of reward out of it. "Bragging rights" don't help my character murder things

[Big-Ben]

Can't wait to get my ass kicked by that boss!  Thanks team!

[house2fly]

I'm pretty happy that one of the challenge modes is going to be basically item degradation. Biting my nails at the thought of trying that without mods!

[RedDavidson]

Those challenges are really simple touches, but change a lot in practice. Really solid additions. Thanks for all the post game support guys!

[Zap Gun For Hire]

Yayyyyyy, the Repair function that EVERYONE loves from D:OS makes an appearance!!11!!!1

 

=====

 

Okay, joking aside I actually AM interested in seeing how the mechanic works.     As a challenge mode, I like the concept quite a bit (again, I was joking before ).  Curious to see how it's implemented though.  Like, how often can repairs be made, what sort of materials/money it will require. Is it limited or gated in some respect.  That sort of thing.

 

So looking forward to it. 

 

Really like the creeping fog aspect of Skaen's Challenge as well.  Seems appropiate.  Gonna be irritating to get constantly snipped from out of sight, but I guess that's why it's a Horror Movie Themed Challenge.

[acbatchelor]

The text is kinda small, so it could be my eyes failing me but the current timeline image has "UPDATED 8/28/18" at the bottom. That would be in the future.   

[Taevyr]

The text is kinda small, so it could be my eyes failing me but the current timeline image has "UPDATED 8/28/18" at the bottom. That would be in the future.   

 

Damn it, who's been abusing Waidwen's sundial?!

[house2fly]

I guess maybe they mean that's when it WILL be updated?

[acbatchelor]

I guess maybe they mean that's when it WILL be updated?

 

I'm thinking they meant 7/28/18. It's the same timeline image that they posted on the last update about 2 weeks ago.

[AndreaColombo]

Subbing. Looking forward to the mega bosses

[MaxQuest]

Whoa, Mega Bosses is awesome stuff 

 

P.S: it would be also awesome if we could enable Berath's Blessing when starting a game with Magran Fires.

Would love to make a run with Berath's Blessing and all 4 challenges enabled ))

[house2fly]

I don't know how feasible it is on the code end of things but I'd like an option to enable the challenges in a lite way, ie you get the challenge but mods stay enabled or you can use Blessings. If this locks you out if challenge-related cheevos I'm completely fine with that, just let me have the cool-sounding Abydon challenge in an otherwise-normal playthrough

[jimnms]

Whoever handled packaging the physical goods, never use them again. I didn't receive a shipping notice and found a the package arrived today (I did find it in the SPAM after receiving this update). I saw who it was from and knew what it was. I rushed in and opened the box only to find the larger box, which I assume is the statue, has a corner crushed in. There is no damage to the outside of the box, so the box was damaged before being packed up. I haven't unpacked the box until I find out what to do about it.

 

Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/86hCbtw

[InsaneCommander]

Whoa, Mega Bosses is awesome stuff 

 

P.S: it would be also awesome if we could enable Berath's Blessing when starting a game with Magran Fires.

Would love to make a run with Berath's Blessing and all 4 challenges enabled ))

 

I second that.

 

I don't know how feasible it is on the code end of things but I'd like an option to enable the challenges in a lite way, ie you get the challenge but mods stay enabled or you can use Blessings. If this locks you out if challenge-related cheevos I'm completely fine with that, just let me have the cool-sounding Abydon challenge in an otherwise-normal playthrough

 

And that too.

[Purudaya]

I like these new challenge modes much better than the first two - very inventive

 

Hoping maybe the Wael or Ondra challenges will mess around with the rest system a bit...

[hilfazer]

 

 

• Abydon - The god of the forge is ready to challenge you with forged items you carry. The more you use weapons and armor, the more they will wear down and become "Damaged". This modifier will make them progressively worse and eventually destroy them unless the mods are removed through Enchantments. Choose the items you will wear into battle wisely!

 

Noo! I want to be swimming in gold and then complain on forums i have too much of it.

I also want to use my favourite unique items all the time and then complain on forums there's no point in using other gear, especially non-unique magical.

[baldurs_gate_2]

Will it be possible, to solo the mega boss on potd upscaled?

[rjshae]

I really like this deity challenge idea. They add a lot of customization potential to the game experience and thereby improve it's replay value. Thanks!

[Valchyrie]

I'm new here, and this might be the wrong place to ask this, so sorry in advance if it is. But I was wondering if we'd hear anything about a full pen and paper version in an update soon? I mean, we could get "Version 2" as a "DLC" or something. I'm just wondering because I'd really like to try it out with a full descriptive version Again, sorry if it's in the wrong place to ask this. 

[Teclis23]

Where is the new patch?

 

Surprised it’s not out yet.

[Guest]

It completely slipped their minds. I'm sure they'll go back to working on it, now that you've reminded them.

[house2fly]

They'd better, I want to see that new crafting interface. And be able to fight the final boss.