Patch notes for 1.03

[Lephys]

Arcane Blast also dazes and is an AoE. It has some great uses.

Plus it deals raw damage, does it not?

 

Also, not to be a stickler, but to stave off confusion, is it not called "Arcane Assault"? Blast is the AoE effect from Implements (if you take the Wizard Talent).

[Telmorial]

 

I actually never knew Chill was enemy-only until I read the patch notes.  I had been treating it as if it would damage allies, and was careful not to cast it on them.

 

It's not so bad.

Yes, I've tried using it that way just now and it is indeed not so bad, especially if the Wizard has a high INT -- but I still don't see why the nerf was necessary. I guess if they increased the casting range by a lot, it might work out to more or less even. Right now, the only time when I really need to cast it on my own allies is when the enemies have gotten past Eder and are interspersed with the party. If the Wizards can stand further from the battle, this won't be that much of a problem.

 

Endurance regen is really sneaky - you don't notice it being OP persay, but it's really powerful all the same.

I partly agree, but if you do the math, 0.4 is pretty worthless no matter how you slice it. Also, any Endurance regen is a double-edged sword: it hides the fact that you're taking damage so you might not break out the big spells and only figure out that you've just spent half of party health on a single battle after the fact.

 

 

Yep, if I knew that talent would only increase the regen by .4, I definitely wouldn't have taken it. Oh well, it's still a great game, hopefully they'll add a respec option (or I may risk using a mod) at some point.

[Jazriel]

This is fantastic stuff, I'm very glad to hear it. I'm just starting to get the drastically longer load and save times (over 5+ seconds) and I am hoping that will go back to how it was when I first installed the game.

 

Biggest thing for me is the increased ranges on Wizard spells. Reading every spell, I was very sad to see so many of them be 5 or 6m range. Nerfing Slicken and Chill Fog is good, they were far too useful compared to everything else. Ever since hitting level 9 every encounter has seen Aloth simply be the spam Slicken/Chill Fog (order depending on enemy position and defense stats) and the odd time use something else.

 

Mind Blades nerf is probably good, the only thing I do with Grieving Mother was spam that, and then use a bow for fast attacks to get enough Focus to cast it again. I don't think I've had more than 2-3 fights last to the point where she's needed to cast it more than 4 times.

 

I'm looking forward to some of these issues being ironed out so that my next playthrough on PotD will be even better. Hard mode is waaaayyyy too easy :/

[View619]

 

 

 

Wizards are still garbage. I main a wiz and I become totally useless after I've used all my spells and it's not fun to spam rest all the time (and waste supplies).

 

My experience with Aloth has been completely the opposite. 2 free magic missiles every trash fight with incredible spells to whip out in the hard fights. Wonderful balance. You aren't supposed to fire spells off constantly - nor are you supposed to just save them and never use them. Playing a Wizard correctly is all about rationing properly - it's a resource management game. If you don't like it, there's always Ciphers or Chanters for unlimited casting.

 

 

So it's by design that you have to spam auto-attack for most battles?  I like IE game implementation better, casting spells is fun.

 

 

Come now, did you read what Matt wrote? Bad show, mate.

 

 

This is standard for people throwing a fit. The change is clearly here to stay, thank the gods that the devs have some common sense when it comes to game balance.

 

It surprises me to see people completely disregard that, without constant rests, your wizards in BG 1 weren't doing much spell slinging either. In fact, it was worse than POE wizards (sling and dart auto attacks). If you don't like POE wizards, don't use them.

Edited April 3, 2015 by View619

[Katarack21]

 

Arcane Blast also dazes and is an AoE. It has some great uses.

Plus it deals raw damage, does it not?

 

Also, not to be a stickler, but to stave off confusion, is it not called "Arcane Assault"? Blast is the AoE effect from Implements (if you take the Wizard Talent).

 

You are correct, both about the raw damage and the name.

[Katarack21]

This is fantastic stuff, I'm very glad to hear it. I'm just starting to get the drastically longer load and save times (over 5+ seconds) and I am hoping that will go back to how it was when I first installed the game.

 

Biggest thing for me is the increased ranges on Wizard spells. Reading every spell, I was very sad to see so many of them be 5 or 6m range. Nerfing Slicken and Chill Fog is good, they were far too useful compared to everything else. Ever since hitting level 9 every encounter has seen Aloth simply be the spam Slicken/Chill Fog (order depending on enemy position and defense stats) and the odd time use something else.

 

Mind Blades nerf is probably good, the only thing I do with Grieving Mother was spam that, and then use a bow for fast attacks to get enough Focus to cast it again. I don't think I've had more than 2-3 fights last to the point where she's needed to cast it more than 4 times.

 

I'm looking forward to some of these issues being ironed out so that my next playthrough on PotD will be even better. Hard mode is waaaayyyy too easy :/

Mind Lance is also good, to royally screw up an enemy caster straight off, and Mind Wave is a *great* AoE knockdown.

[Parsong]

 

 

It surprises me to see people completely disregard that, without constant rests, your wizards in BG 1 weren't doing much spell slinging either. In fact, it was worse than POE wizards (sling and dart auto attacks). If you don't like POE wizards, don't use them.

 

 

I didn't even know you weren't supposed to rest after every few battles in BG1/2 until i visited this forum.  I mean, it seemed logical.  Why would my Wizard/Sorc auto-attack? He's not a ranger.

 

 

Can you show me where this was considered cheating/exploiting? Or is it just your opinion?

Edited April 3, 2015 by Parsong

[View619]

 

 

 

It surprises me to see people completely disregard that, without constant rests, your wizards in BG 1 weren't doing much spell slinging either. In fact, it was worse than POE wizards (sling and dart auto attacks). If you don't like POE wizards, don't use them.

 

 

I didn't even know you weren't supposed to rest after every few battles in BG1/2 until i visited this forum.

 

 

Can you show me where this was an exploit? 

 

My BG/IWD threw out spells like no tomarrow, and didn't sling for the most of the game.  That woulda been bad design.

 

 

Remember that while it has similarities to IE games, Obsidian implemented certain mechanics based on table-top games. In table-top, no DM worth his salt is going to allow you to rest after every battle, hence camping supplies and limited resting. In BG/IWD burning all your spells and resting after every battle is fine, but this is not an IE game.

 

POE requires that you manage your spells like any other resource, if that's not what you like then you are free to play any other class. You don't have to play a mage.

Edited April 3, 2015 by View619

[RedSocialKnight]

There's some great little quality of life stuff here -- very pleased with casting buffs through portraits. And it's nice that they got the most obvious bugs cleared up this quickly (assuming that all really is well when the patch goes live)

 

But ... please don't take away my Mind Blades! Leave my Mind Blades alone!

[Jazriel]

 

 

 

It surprises me to see people completely disregard that, without constant rests, your wizards in BG 1 weren't doing much spell slinging either. In fact, it was worse than POE wizards (sling and dart auto attacks). If you don't like POE wizards, don't use them.

 

 

I didn't even know you weren't supposed to rest after every few battles in BG1/2 until i visited this forum.  I mean, it seemed logical.  Why would my Wizard/Sorc auto-attack? He's not a ranger.

 

 

Can you show me where this was considered cheating/exploiting? Or is it just your opinion?

 

 

It is commonly considered that "spamming rest" might not have been the intent in the game. The two main arguments against it would probably be: 1) Since the game is based on D&D, it doesn't follow that rest spamming is a valid tactic and 2) Within the atmosphere and setting in the game, spending months not saving the world because instead you're resting after every fight also doesn't really follow.

 

The argument for it is rather obvious: it's an effective tactic so abuse it like any rational and intelligent gamer would.

 

No one really chastises anyone else for spamming rest in BG1/2, it's a good tactic so use it. However it should be pretty obvious that it is sort of an unfair advantage.

 

BG1/2 are very very easy to cheese, it's just the nature of these games (why fight when I can run into a doorway and trivialize some hard fight to pew pew pew behind my fighter?)

 

 

I played through the entirety of BG1 2 weeks ago in preparation for PoE and my personal preference is to rest as little as possible, because it's more fun to actually try and manage health and resources like spells than it is to simply rest after every fight. BG1 also doesn't have a hotkey for it which BG2 does and I'm way too lazy to move my mouse all the way down to the lower left every time lol. In BG1 Neera was basically useless for most of the game, and in fact it was a little frustrating that the game doesn't supply a half decent way of prepping a mage like her for combat. Having a THAC0 of 23 with a sling/darts for a good chunk of the game was annoying >_>

[Rawrsong]

Personally I'm backing up my "objectbundle" folder.  That way if I don't like the changes to certain abilities it should be fairly easy to make a house rule and revert individual abilities back to the old version.

[Parsong]

So you guys just use your small damage book attack (which is a dps loss for me, 70+ arbalast) and switch to GM or something...for almost all the game?

 

I think I woulda lost my mind if lvl 9 wasn't so damn good.

 

Until next patch that is. My spam skill goes to crap. (Ice Wizard tears)

Edited April 3, 2015 by Parsong

[Katarack21]

2) Every rest in BG1&2 has a random chance of spawning enemies to attack you, scaled to your level. Successful rest spam also includes save scumming, which was clearly not designed for considering the above implemented mechanic.

[Stun]

Remember that while it has similarities to IE games, Obsidian implemented certain mechanics based on table-top games. In table-top, no DM worth his salt is going to allow you to rest after every battle,

To be fair, no good DM in Pen and paper AD&D is going to throw as many battles at you as the standard CRPG does either.

 

From what I remember of my pen and paper years, the typical Adventurer's work day, was, in fact, just one or two major battles. The rest of the day was usually spent doing non-combat things. Essentially, we sometimes DID rest after one big fight.

Edited April 3, 2015 by Stun

[Lephys]

The resting in IE games could've been handled better, but it wasn't intended for you to rest every single time you cast one spell (the design just failed to support this intention as well as it could have).

 

I understand not liking to play magical people with such resource management going on, but that doesn't mean games built around that shouldn't exist, or should somehow allow you to completely circumvent the limitation.

[Parsong]

The resting in IE games could've been handled better, but it wasn't intended for you to rest every single time you cast one spell (the design just failed to support this intention as well as it could have).

 

I understand not liking to play magical people with such resource management going on, but that doesn't mean games built around that shouldn't exist, or should somehow allow you to completely circumvent the limitation.

 

I think a good middle ground is to allow per encounters to start earlier, rather than lvl 9. Especially after these nerfs.

[Grand_Commander13]

I think a good middle ground is to allow per encounters to start earlier, rather than lvl 9. Especially after these nerfs.

I stand by my earlier suggestion: start it at level five rather than level nine, and have it improve every four levels rather than every two. Level nine is a long time to wait in a game that ranges from level 1-12, but at the same time means casters will become truly absurd by level 20 if the spell level they cast per-encounter increases every two levels.

[Stun]

 

The resting in IE games could've been handled better, but it wasn't intended for you to rest every single time you cast one spell (the design just failed to support this intention as well as it could have).

And BG1 flooded you with scrolls and wands, so it's not like rest spamming was any sort of necessity due to the 'system' or whatever.

 

If anything, I find myself needing to rest more in PoE, since most of the NPCs they give you in this game have zero points in Athletics and the fatigue penalties are pretty darn harsh (unlike the IE games, where they didn't actually matter at all)

Edited April 3, 2015 by Stun

[Parsong]

And BG1 flooded you with scrolls and wands, so it's not like rest spamming was any sort of necessity.

 

If anything, I find myself needing to rest more in PoE, since most of the NPCs they give you in this game have zero points in Athletics and the fatigue penalties are pretty darn harsh (unlike the IE games, where they didn't actually matter at all)

 

Also regen brought back HP + No fatigue, so also less reasons to rest.

 

But those 2 things I like about PoE rest system. Adds some sort of difficulty.  The spell thing tho, just makes some classes kinda boring.

[Jazriel]

Is there any word on how soon this patch will be distributed to gog.com? The weekend is coming up and it would be nice to be able to play with these fixes over the weekend.

 

I should also probably submit a ticket about not having my kickstarter bonus items on my gog.com account too.

[Lephys]

I think a good middle ground is to allow per encounters to start earlier, rather than lvl 9. Especially after these nerfs.

I agree. I've never seen a reason not to have some spells be balanced around much greater frequency, and others balanced around much lesser frequency.

 

In Pathfinder, all your LvL 0 spells are at-will. Now, sure, they're quite weak, but they have a bit of utility to them. The point is the concept. Only being able to cast one spell per year is boring, clearly. And being able to cast 1,000 spells per hour is a little ridiculous, clearly. But, these systems are always like "Well, obviously the smallest fiery projectile you can conjure is big enough to seriously injure 7 people, so we HAVE to limit that to like 2 per day, right? I mean, we just found the spell in nature like that, u_u..."

 

And I realize that at-will spells are basically "auto-attack" minus the "auto" part (since you could cast DIFFERENT ones each time, just with as great a frequency as standard attacks could be made), but at least you're constantly able to make specifically-Wizardish attacks, rather than being forced to only "flame on" in rarer circumstances.

 

 

I stand by my earlier suggestion: start it at level five rather than level nine, and have it improve every four levels rather than every two. Level nine is a long time to wait in a game that ranges from level 1-12, but at the same time means casters will become truly absurd by level 20 if the spell level they cast per-encounter increases every two levels.

I think having them jump from X spells per-rest at any level, to X spells per-encounter at the following level is still a terrible idea compared to having them transition, 1 "spell ammo" at a time, from per-rest to per-encounter.

 

In other words, if, by level 5, you want all Lvl 1 spells to be per-encounter, then at Lvl 2, you should get 1 per-encounter and 3 per-rest (for example... tweak total spell ammo as you see fit). At Lvl 3, , you'd have 2 per-encounter. At Lvl 4, 3 per-encounter. And at Lvl 5, 4 per-encounter.

 

Again, not necessarily one new one per level. The changes at each caster level could differ, but... the idea is a gradual transition, rather than "this is really tiring, this is really tiring... THIS IS NO LONGER TIRING! 8D! I CAN DO THIS ALL DAY!"

Edited April 3, 2015 by Lephys

[Veynn]

So how big a file size is this 9GB? Please say it isnt so. 

[Marat Sar]

Waiting for this like Christmas day.

[PrimeJunta]

There's plenty of scrolls in P:E as well. And you can make more.

[ruzen]

Patch notes looks ok but anyother fella thinks Strongholds event history UI should be decending rather than ascending? I thought Its gona patched out too