Update #94: Patch 1.04 - New Fixes and the Introduction of Patch Betas

[Darren Monahan]

Update by Brandon Adler, Patch Wrangler
 

 
Hey, everyone. The Pillars of Eternity team is still hard at work in stomping out bugs, balancing gameplay, and adding in some additional polish where needed. Patch 1.04, our latest patch that dropped earlier today, has a good amount of these fixes. You can find the patch notes at the end of this update.
 
For patch 1.05, which we are targeting for a May release, will continue adding these fixes along with some additional new features. For example, we are adding in the ability to change your player's portrait and voice set any time during the game and adding new shaders for Afflictions (like Petrified).
 
Patch Betas
After consulting with the community the Pillars of Eternity team has decided to start making patch betas available. This will give players the opportunity to get new fixes faster and it will allow developers the chance to see potential problems in a patch sooner.
 
Due to technical limitations, the patches are only being offered on Steam. We are investigating getting the patch beta process on GOG, but it may not be possible.
 
When we make new patches available for beta we will let the community know on our Announcement and News forum.
 
If you would like to join in the beta fun, please take a look at this post that describes the exact process for getting into the betas on Steam.
 
Patch 1.04 Notes
Here are the patch notes for 1.04:
 
Items, Spells, and Abilities

• AOE indicators should now properly resize if the caster has a sub 10 Intellect score.
• Fixed an issue with over-time aura spells not applying the correct value on the final tick. 
• Knock Down will now correctly be applied for the full duration of the effect. 
• Mantle of The Dying Boar will now trigger at 33% Endurance with the effect of 5 Endurance a tick. 
• Talisman of the Unconquerable will now give a 1.25 Focus multiplier instead of .25. 
• Blooded should trigger properly in all cases now.
• Boar Animal Companion bonus damage should now work as intended.
• Prone Reduction mod should now work correctly.

Quests and Companions

• Fixed Aloth and Kana speaking when they weren't in the party in one of the last levels.
• Sagani's fox-specific banters now require the appropriate items in the player inventory.
• Falanroed's dialogue no longer displays a script node.
• Durance will now properly discuss your dream with you if you've already discussed his staff.
• Relaxed some constraints on Durance's quest conversation. This allows all characters, regardless of background or stats, to finish his quest.
• Players can now loot the nest in Oldsong.
• Fixed an invalid conditional check in one of Pallegina's conversations.
• Heritage Hill tower will be fully revealed when exploring the map.
• Fixed spawn issue in a scripted interaction near the end of the game.
• Fixed an invalid creature spawn in the Ogre Lair in Od Nua.
• Sagani no longer references the antagonist by name before you know it.
• A container in the Catacombs of Od Nua will now remember if it was looted.
• The "Master's Tools" quest will now work if you have the required items before starting the quest.
• The "A Two Story Job" scripted interaction will not require a second grappling hook to climb down from the window if one was already used to climb up. 

General Fixes

• Fix for camera movement problems when the game is paused or in a cutscene.
• Fix to retroactively restore party movement in saves that display movement speed problems.
• Made some fixes to movement speed problems that were being reported with some items.
• Optimized Save/Load game system for better performance. 
• Optimized how scene transitions are handled for better memory usage on 32-bit machines. This may allow players to transition to new areas without running out of memory. 
• Sound Sets from hired companions will now be properly restored when adding them to the party from the stronghold.
• "All Stronghold Upgrades" achievement now checks 25 upgrades instead of 26. This will properly reward the achievement if you already have fully upgraded your stronghold. 
• The "Kill All Dragons" achievement will now properly fire if they are killed indirectly (like by a trap). This is a retroactive fix and will be rewarded if the dragons are already dead. 
• Fixed issue where store prices were getting exceptionally large after receiving a discount. 
• Fixed issues with gaining infinite XP from bad Stronghold data. 
• World time will not get very large in some cases after Save/Load. 
• Modelling offset with Durance's head has been adjusted.
• Icon scale is now correct on Hearth Harvest and Reghar Konnek.
• All shaders will now compile properly under DirectX 11.
• Restored all the missing effects in the intro cutscene. 
• Removed Blunderbuss item from an early game loot table. 
• Changed the cursor type on the blood pool in the Temple of Skaen to conversation. 
• Fixed a few save game issues with dead summoned creatures.
• Fixed issue where occasionally a crash would occur when initializing the Steam API. 
• Draggable windows are now handled properly when running at very high resolutions. 
• Swamp Lurker's animation wont spaz anymore when the game is paused. 
• Fixed an issue to prevent binding mouse buttons to window controls. 
• Game will now pause if you alt-tab during a cutscene in full screen mode. 
• Audio will now resume properly if the game loses focus. 
• Fixed an issue with infinite load screen if you transition while hovering over a container. 
• Characters will now wait for their idle animation before trying to reload which fixes an animation sync issue. 
• Damaged characters performing AoE attacks will not overload their AI state stacks anymore.

[Teq]

Any chance getting acknowledgement about this issue for a future patch?

[Lord Gorchnik]

Thanks for your commitment as always.  I am curious to know what early loot-table the Blunderbuss was on though.  Don't think I ever ran across it.

[Kevin Lynch]

Liking the save/load optimization. Starting the game no longer has the looooong waits for the saves to get ready.

[TT1]

Any news about these issues here?

 

http://kotaku.com/someone-beat-pillars-of-eternity-in-under-40-minutes-1697709938

[ItinerantNomad]

This isn't intended to come off as rude, but I wonder why the priorities are the way they are for v1.05. Adding portrait changes and features should be much lower in priority than a decent companion AI and continued work on pathfinding. I have seen multiple reviewers and players complain about the lack of AI and how poorly the game plays without it causing frustration for players. I have not yet seen anyone complain about not having the ability to change their portrait over the duration of the game.

Edited April 17, 2015 by ItinerantNomad

[Rokem]

Actually I'm glad to hear they are working on changeable portrait sets after character creation, and I hope they carry that over to changing companion portraits as well (not that I would want to but I like having the option).

[Flow]

Companion AI is hard. I wouldn't expect that soon.

 

Couldn't give a crap about it personally, but I agree that if the goal is to increase the appeal of the game to a wider audience, it's probably a good idea.

[Alien_77]

I hope Obsidian or some modders come up with a working companion ai someday. These sorts of micromanagment during a non turn based combat neither feels fluid nor fun to me. I have put it aside for now.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Alien_77

[OzMo4]

Thank you guys

[groovebeat]

Any chance on seeing the introduction of a fixed camera option that automatically follows the party? Other than that I am most happy with your work of love.

[groovebeat]

Also, a customizable hotbar for the favourite party actions/spells would be nice.

[LastGunman]

So if I ever want a patched version of the game, I have to buy it again on steam?

[Tigranes]

Nope, you wait for the GOG patch, just like most other games on GOG.

[Jumble Murdersense]

Huzzah for loading optimisations

[Night Stalker]

Nope, you wait for the GOG patch, just like most other games on GOG.

In fact the GOG.com patch is out now!

Edited April 17, 2015 by Night Stalker

[Kordanor]

Bugs still present or not retroactively fixed in savegames:

-Maerwald Dialogue overwrite via quicksave not fixed retroactively

-Enemy hitpoints still broken after loading a savegame (they need to regenerate first to not be halfdead)

-Reckless Assault buff still stacking (but suppressed)

 

And if I am not mistaken the sanitarium bug which turns everyone in there hostile is also still present.

[koski]

Actually I'm glad to hear they are working on changeable portrait sets after character creation, and I hope they carry that over to changing companion portraits as well (not that I would want to but I like having the option).

 

You're able to change the NPC portraits by just swapping out their portrait files from the data folder to a new one. This also works for player portraits, as they appear to be saved to the save game by name. Ie. add a copy of one of the inbuilt portraits with a different name (say, your charactername_lg/sm) and then you can change them whenever you find a more appropriate image.

 

I am not sure how changing the portraits that affects the game though. Would it break achievements etc. I could also almost swear that changing the portrait that way somehow reset the zone difficulty. I had some monsters missing when I tried it once (on the intro zone, after the ambush on PotD the pack of 3 guys you meet just before the leader turned into just being one archer).

[Godless]

 

 

And if I am not mistaken the sanitarium bug which turns everyone in there hostile is also still present.

So this wasn't just me. I spent a good 15 minutes working out how my more or less good actions could have lead to that outcome, but in the end I just tried to kill the least amount of people possible and called it a day.

[srlapo]

• Sound Sets from hired companions will now be properly restored when adding them to the party from the stronghold.

 

I take it that it is not a retroactive fix? My bugged hired companions are still silent, even after dismissing and reforming the party at the stronghold.

[Ferrante]

Thank you guys,  everyday the game is smother, 100 hours here, just finished the Second Chapter and I'm having a lot of fun.

[Hoyoku]

I can finally get past character creation without crashing! 

[kudos]

No fix for the backer poem?

 

I am disappoint.

[Entarion]

Hello,

 

Can you please comment on this problem and if it will be patched in 1.05 ? It is game-breaking for me :/

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/75262-unable-to-join-animancy-hearing-103-patch-did-not-fix/

[Descartian]

This isn't intended to come off as rude, but I wonder why the priorities are the way they are for v1.05. Adding portrait changes and features should be much lower in priority than a decent companion AI and continued work on pathfinding. I have seen multiple reviewers and players complain about the lack of AI and how poorly the game plays without it causing frustration for players. I have not yet seen anyone complain about not having the ability to change their portrait over the duration of the game.

 

 

I hope Obsidian or some modders come up with a working companion ai someday. These sorts of micromanagment during a non turn based combat neither feels fluid nor fun to me. I have put it aside for now.

 

The guys from IE Mod already did some AI improvements on enemy pathfinding