Stat bonus modifiers can erroneously be applied multiple times allowing stats to grow beyond intended values

[pi2repsion]

When I reached character level 5 I observed that Eder had considerably larger defensive stats than he was supposed to given his level, attributes, and equipment. I cannot say exactly when it happened as I do not save to separate save slots that often, but looking back through my saves, the following saves are the last from before this happened and the first from after it happened.

 

I am running the game on Windows.

 

Saves at dropbox due to forum attachment limit:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t5sgetpefdousrr/Eder_unexplained_stat_increase.rar?dl=0

 

 

The save before the discrepancy occurs is from temple of Eothan with about half of the first level cleared. Eder is level 4 and when stripped of all gear and buffs, his defenses are 36/53/31/39 - exactly what one would expect given his level and attributes.

 

The save after is from the Black Meadow, two days later. Eder is still level 4, but now when stripped of all gear and buffs, his defenses are 58/63/48/51 and he has also gained +1 perception and +1 resolve (which are responsible for 2 of the reflex and will increases).

 

The total unexplained increase is thus 20/10/15/10, +1 per, +1 res.

 

It is obvious to suspect a bug with respects to stacking stat bonuses that fails to get cleared, as that is a much too common bug in CRPGs, and the suspicion is supported by the stat-bonus gear Eder has been wearing during this time is Fulvano's Amulet (+5 reflex) and Minor Ring of Deflection (+5 deflection) as well, after finding it in the temple, Pilgrim's Lasting Vigil (+1 per, +1 res).

 

The observed discrepancy is thus a perfect match with the stats of Defender mode (with Wary Defender) and the three named items being added once and not cleared when they should be, so it seems very likely that the discrepancy happened at some time after the Pilgrim's Lasting Vigil helmet was picked up and equipped. That still leaves a considerable gap from that point of time in the temple to the Black Marsh save, but it is the closest I can narrow down the gap given the saves on hand.

 

 

...He does make an awesome tank, though, running around at level 5 with 96/73/65/63 defenses when defender mode is activated and he is wearing his equipment, but it is trivializing content.

[cronuss]

Wow, this really screwed my game.

 

I had done a lot of combat mechanics testing early in my game, where I was saving and loading in quick succession.

 

Turns out my Eder has about 70 deflection while naked now.

 

Sigh.

 

I'm about 20 hours in and really don't want to start over...

 

[sanpats]

Wow, this really screwed my game.

 

I had done a lot of combat mechanics testing early in my game, where I was saving and loading in quick succession.

 

Turns out my Eder has about 70 deflection while naked now.

 

Sigh.

 

I'm about 20 hours in and really don't want to start over...

And you don't need to. I believe the fix in the patch will be retroactive, and there is a workaround for the time being a few posts above yours.

[Jazou]

[...] using certain bugged abilities (PC ciphers) or the health bug on PC monks.

 

What is PC standing for? (I guess it's not Personal Computer  )

And if the answer to my first question won't help to know which cipher abilitites are affected - which are?

[DocDoomII]

Player Character

[pepe]

 

Where is freaking fix for this ? Nearly all players have this bug, so nearly all players have unbalanced, not intentional by devs experience!!! COM'ON, THIS SHOULD BE FIXED ASAP. ALL PLAYERS CAN'T PLAY NORMAL!

It's not like patches grow on trees.

 

Give them time to analyse the problems, produce a working solution, test it and release it.

 

 

If so simple bugs "grow on trees" (duplication stats is one of the oldest and simple bug in this kind of games), so the patches should! 

 

Where is fix ?????? Take money and release broken game. Yes, 6 days and the Pillars of Eternity is still broken, unplayable nearly for all players who want to play fair! Shame on you Obsidian.

 

PS: I will not use some weird, cheat stuff from reddit.

Edited April 1, 2015 by pepe

[DocDoomII]

While I do agree that nowaday games are released with too many bugs, you can't really believe that patches can be produced in so little time.

[gconker]

This is the result of a sloppy and lazy programming . Obsidian have a serious issue with quality of their games and after all those years they should realize the main issue and fix it.  You can have most beautiful graphics, amazing story, millions of quests and billions of races, but when you can't get something as basic as characters stats right, it worth nothing. And its a shame too .

Their half assed responses and attempts to downplay this bug are outrageous.  I can live with a few broken quests , obscure and non intuitive game mechanics , bugged spells , retarded loading times between locations and so on, but this one is unacceptable.

[gconker]

This game should be renamed to Pillars of Broken Stats.

[Zornack]

CT file with AoERadiusMult (original CT file credit to tfigment):

 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s9t5kc11orwjcau/PillarsOfEternity_1.0.2_figment_addenduranceandaoe_v2.CT?dl=0

 

 

Fantastic, thanks!

[Eyonik]

A fix for this is easy to program

 

We know from the CheatEngine guide that the game stores a stat and its bonus in memory. When a savegame is created, the game serializes the variables and writes them to the savegame. When a savegame is loaded, the values get deserialized. I guess this is, where the bug happens, sometimes the bonus gets loaded incorrectly.

 

When items are equipped and skills are used, the bonus gets recalculated but only relative to the current bonus. (current bonus + effects = new bonus).

So what should be done is to recalculate the absolute bonus completely when items get equipped or skills are used (all effects + all equip = new bonus)

[sanpats]

 

 

Where is freaking fix for this ? Nearly all players have this bug, so nearly all players have unbalanced, not intentional by devs experience!!! COM'ON, THIS SHOULD BE FIXED ASAP. ALL PLAYERS CAN'T PLAY NORMAL!

It's not like patches grow on trees.

 

Give them time to analyse the problems, produce a working solution, test it and release it.

 

 

If so simple bugs "grow on trees" (duplication stats is one of the oldest and simple bug in this kind of games), so the patches should! 

 

Where is fix ?????? Take money and release broken game. Yes, 6 days and the Pillars of Eternity is still broken, unplayable nearly for all players who want to play fair! Shame on you Obsidian.

 

PS: I will not use some weird, cheat stuff from reddit.

 

It's up to you whether to use or not. I gave it to ppl who wanna continue to play while waiting for patch. No need to bad mouth stuff ppl who just try to help other players, even if you feel it weird.

[sanpats]

A fix for this is easy to program

 

We know from the CheatEngine guide that the game stores a stat and its bonus in memory. When a savegame is created, the game serializes the variables and writes them to the savegame. When a savegame is loaded, the values get deserialized. I guess this is, where the bug happens, sometimes the bonus gets loaded incorrectly.

 

When items are equipped and skills are used, the bonus gets recalculated but only relative to the current bonus. (current bonus + effects = new bonus).

So what should be done is to recalculate the absolute bonus completely when items get equipped or skills are used (all effects + all equip = new bonus)

Yes programming wise it is easy to fix, and I read a dev's tweet that he got the fix for this already, presumably retroactive. They will try to release patch 1.03 before this weekend.

[DocDoomII]

Now, I have nothing in particular against Obsidian. But after being burned with some games bought on day 1 I entirely stopped getting games as soon as they come out. Give them time, and hope they'll fix most of the problems.

 

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

 

 

 

This is an exception because I'm a Kickstarter backer, so I technically paid 2 years ago.

[khermann]

 

A way to fix this before patch:

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/30x84n/unofficial_bugfix_easy_fix_for_attributesdefences/.compact

 

Hey guys, check the link out! We can fix this bug without waiting for the patch and can continue to play now.

 

I tried, and it works, except figment's table lack the endurance (called stamina in the table) bonus, which can be faulty as well. I modified figment CT file to include the endurance bonus successfully. My chars are all fixed. I will try to upload my mod CT file here.

 

 

yes I'll just let this stranger run whatever executable they want on my desktop, because ... i trust the internet. hacking pointers is cool, but no way am I using this.  Stay in school!

[cronuss]

I followed the reddit guide, including changing accuracy bonuses to zero.

 

Now, all of my characters accuracy is out of wonk.

 

They all have 9 accuracy, and when I equip Eder with his weapons, his accuracy drops to 1.

 

Any help?

 

 

edit: Just checked my save game from right when I first acquired Eder. His Accuracy bonus was actually 30 at the time. The Eder in my recent saved game only had 20(?). Regardless, why does the guide say to set those to 0 as well? Clearly this is not correct?

Edited April 1, 2015 by cronuss

[Jazou]

I still don't understand why there isn't a hotfix available when some problems are probably already fixed.

We don't demand an all-in-one fix for "everything" - just sharing what is already done would be amazing.

Every day there are more players getting into troubles and I'm sure some of the reasons are already eliminiated

and are just waiting for other fixes to provide all of them together within the announced patch.

[sanpats]

I followed the reddit guide, including changing accuracy bonuses to zero.

 

Now, all of my characters accuracy is out of wonk.

 

They all have 9 accuracy, and when I equip Eder with his weapons, his accuracy drops to 1.

 

Any help?

 

 

edit: Just checked my save game from right when I first acquired Eder. His Accuracy bonus was actually 30 at the time. The Eder in my recent saved game only had 20(?). Regardless, why does the guide say to set those to 0 as well? Clearly this is not correct?

That guide was written before there are Accuracy settings. Accuracy depends on class, so compare the value from the newly created char's value.

[sanpats]

 

 

A way to fix this before patch:

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/30x84n/unofficial_bugfix_easy_fix_for_attributesdefences/.compact

 

Hey guys, check the link out! We can fix this bug without waiting for the patch and can continue to play now.

 

I tried, and it works, except figment's table lack the endurance (called stamina in the table) bonus, which can be faulty as well. I modified figment CT file to include the endurance bonus successfully. My chars are all fixed. I will try to upload my mod CT file here.

 

 

yes I'll just let this stranger run whatever executable they want on my desktop, because ... i trust the internet. hacking pointers is cool, but no way am I using this.  Stay in school!

 

Yep, it isn't for the faint of heart.

[Gwydeon79]

It is nice that you have provided a fix, but cheat engine doesn't have the best rep, so you shouldn't be surprised that people are hesitant to use it or files from someone they don't know. 

I personally am hoping that Obsidian comes through with an official resolution soon.

[wushudragon]

Man this bites.  I also do not want to do the hacking of game memory "fix" to have the game playable again.   Don't get me wrong, used the prog and good ol hex editing back in the day, but comeon.. in this day n age where almost anyone could make a game and make it fairly moddable to address such issues *ahem* unity, this is totally unacceptable.  The fact that I kept reading about the other bug (active stats dissappearing) and this one just happened to come across my radar because I had a "hunch" that the game was getting too easy on hard for a trad crpg like it is, is unbelievable.  The devs should be announcing and apologizing to fans front and center, take the damn iniative, Obsidian, and admit you F**ked up bad..

 

Nothing against the company or its games, FYI.  I just want some ownership and also the fact that I am a backer from the start and they quite literally owe us, the fans, a finished game that has some quality control for our support.

 

/end rant.

[Gwydeon79]

They *are* saying that they recognize these bugs and that they need fixed. I think what you are looking for is an apology. Which you might get, but you have to understand this is embarrassing to them. They have been is getting a lot of positive review, they did good work for the crpg community. But they did not have a gigantic team of testers to try to beat the thing into submission.

Not to mention the fact that this got by all of the Backer Beta testers or was introduced as a side effect of some other fix.

I'm upset. I want to play my game, but as soon as it started getting odd I came here and found other people had already found the trigger (saving at a location you picked up a companion). This is far from the only issue they are dealing with, so even though its the most important one for you... The most efficient way they can release the fixes, is in batches. Be patient. We're all excited to finally play, were all frustrated and (many of us) feel we have to stop playing with our shiny new toy for risk of breaking it further (or loosing out on the challenge). 

 

Patience.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Gwydeon79

[AgentTBC]

Are the backer beta testers under NDA?  I'm wondering how they missed it or if it wasn't present in the tested version.

[Malaclypse]

I still don't understand why there isn't a hotfix available when some problems are probably already fixed.

We don't demand an all-in-one fix for "everything" - just sharing what is already done would be amazing.

Every day there are more players getting into troubles and I'm sure some of the reasons are already eliminiated

and are just waiting for other fixes to provide all of them together within the announced patch.

 

They need to make sure the patch is working correctly, or at least as sure as they possibly can. The one thing you don't want is that they release a patch early, and then find out it corrupts saves or breaks characters. 

 

It sucks, I agree, but I am sure they will release it as soon as they can. 

[Tanred]

Are the backer beta testers under NDA?  I'm wondering how they missed it or if it wasn't present in the tested version.

 

There were various save / load bug issues (among other issues ofc) in earlier builds, but none like that in latest builds. But the beta consisted only of few areas and you even did not pick up any companions but played with a pre-made party. 

 

I also think that most beta players focused more on various gameplay features, rules, UI etc. rather than reporting various bugs of which there were many with each new build. But still, Sensuki and others did a stellar job as beta testers, unlike anything I have ever seen with other games.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Tanred

[sparklecat]

Are the backer beta testers under NDA?  I'm wondering how they missed it or if it wasn't present in the tested version.

There's pretty much no way we would've caught it, given that the trigger seems to be related to both areas saved and loaded in, and time spent playing for the changes to mount up enough to be noticeable - like Tanred said, we had a three map section slice of the game to play around with.  Given that it took me over 30 hours to notice anything was up with my PC in the actual game...

 

Which is probably the same reason Obsidian didn't catch it in their QA; I gather playing the game through "normally" for a week or so isn't as much a part of the testing process as playing certain content to check for specific problems, going by what others have said about this.