Update #99: Announcing the Expansion and Update 2.0

[Doppelschwert]

Bonuses to Defense against particular afflictions/effects are already coded into the game. You can give a monster +45 defense against Charm and Dominate without boosting Will.

 

I'm all for niche cases of damage immunity, but afflictions are generally ambiguous enough in nature that immunity to them could actually be confusing.

Huh, I didn't know that. Is that in the encyclopedia or do you have to calculate it from the data in the combatlog by comparing different saving throws? If it's the latter, it's kind of obscure.

 

 

In general, although I agree that things might get confusing (and too much rock-paper-scissor-esque) if you overdo immunities, I think categorial and consistent immunities to afflictions would be no problem when they are properly explained in the encyclopedia and the combat log.

[Gary1986]

Can saved games using beta patches be used when the real update arrives?

[Gary1986]

Wouldn't immunities make some races more powerful? Like you'd have to make all fire godlike immune to fire. Or a death godlike immune to death ha

[WorstUsernameEver]

I don't see any reason to believe the developers would feel obligated to give elemental immunities to certain sub-races.

[gkathellar]

Buuuut what about mindless creatures. Made of stone or something. Does an animat have a will to bend?

 

Yes, actually! If you read through their entry in the bestiary, it states that animats are made using a suit of armor and the soul of a willing participant, and that they rely on dedication and sense of purpose to sustain themselves. They're (at least in the lore) especially vulnerable to doubt, to the point that it can disable them outright.

 

This is actually one of the really clever things about PoE's lore. Since basically everything capable of autonomous function has soul energy, it makes sense that mental attacks working through soul energy would work on basically everything. Vessels (constructs and undead in other games) and primordials (oozes and spores and such) are both stated to have souls, even if they lack any actual intelligence.

 

As for other cases, I think it's just a question of intensity, right? If you sicken a disease pudding or frighten a ghost, it means you're just that badass.

 

Honestly, I'd prefer to see immunity to minimum damage for certain types (not unlike what Rymrgand's Mantle does for PCs) combined with stupidly DT against those same types, rather than outright immunity to the damage types. Maybe this is just me, but I don't mind if, like, the Adra Dragon or a 12th level wizard named Jaya Ballard or whatever can unleash fires sick enough to burn a Flame Blight.

 

 

Can I blind a bat creature or does it use sound?

 

Well, actually, only the smaller class of bats (including all insectivorous bats) use echolocation. The larger grouping (including all fruit bats) has exceptional eyesi-

 

/shot

 

Okay, okay, enough RL science.

 

But since many blinding effects, like Curse of Blackened Sight, target Will, who's to say they're not neurological/spiritual effects? After all, there's been studies demonstrating that blind humans who use echolocation are subject to many of the same perceptual illusions as sighted peo-

 

/shot

 

Huh, I didn't know that. Is that in the encyclopedia or do you have to calculate it from the data in the combatlog by comparing different saving throws? If it's the latter, it's kind of obscure.

 

Coastal Aumaua and mountain dwarves both have specialized defense bonuses, and there are talents covering basically every type of effect.

[Lord_Mord]

 

Vessels (constructs and undead in other games) and primordials (oozes and spores and such) are both stated to have souls, even if they lack any actual intelligence.

 

First let me say: You already convinced me. But just for the sake of whatever: Didn't the game say, that the undead in the graveyard district were soulless? Maybe I understood something wrong. And the hollowborn? They definitely have no souls or I didn't get the point of the whole game. Maybe they have brains, I don't know. So either a spell can manipulate someones intellect or soul. Not sometimes this and sometimes that.

 

Oh, I almost forgot:

 

 

Well, actually, only the smaller class of bats (including all insectivorous bats) use echolocation. The larger grouping (including all fruit bats) has exceptional eyesi-

 

These are fantasy computer game bats. And the Skuldrs have very big ears and very small eyes.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Lord_Mord

[Nakia]

The walking corpses in the graveyard have souls that animate them but their brains have rotted so they have no intelligence.   The Hollowborn have no souls that is the whole point of the game or at least the main mystery of the game.  Intelligence is formed by the combination of brain and soul which for me brings up an interesting point.  Ogres are intelligent in PoE.  Dragons also so what makes the Kith unique?  What makes the Kith the Kith?    PoE is a fascinating game that raises more questions than it answers.  I love it.

[BAdler]

Hey, guys. We aren't releasing news because we don't have any news to release right now. With GenCon and gamescom coming up you can expect some news over the next couple of weeks regarding the expansion. Also, once we get the video from the Comic Con panel, we can show that to you guys.

 

I am currently working on getting an Update 2.0 beta build together for you guys. That should be up sometime this week.

 

I know at times it can seem like we aren't posting information, but it isn't because we have forgotten about you guys. We are still working on the expansion, but when we feel like we have something more solid to talk about and show we will do so.

 

We are very appreciative of what our backers have done for us, but we don't always have the resources to update as much as we would like.

 

Thanks for the understanding and patience.

 

Hey, guys. The beta is going to go out on Monday. Without getting into the technical reasons there was a bug that was introduced that was causing some conversations to have incorrect speakers. It isn't a huge issue, but I would prefer to get it fixed before releasing the Update to you guys.

[BAdler]

Can saved games using beta patches be used when the real update arrives?

This should be okay.

[Grom56]

Thanks for the update BAdler... Monday sounds like a winner. I'm all for known bugs to be handled first! Take your time, do it right...

[Doppelschwert]

 

Huh, I didn't know that. Is that in the encyclopedia or do you have to calculate it from the data in the combatlog by comparing different saving throws? If it's the latter, it's kind of obscure.

 

Coastal Aumaua and mountain dwarves both have specialized defense bonuses, and there are talents covering basically every type of effect.

 

I guess you mean stuff like 'Mentral Fortress' or 'Body Control'?

In that case, I knew about them (also mentioned them indirectly before) but my point is, they are grouped, so you can't separate them in any combination. It's not possible to have an arbitrary combination of increased resistance against afflictions. That's totally fine for the player, but I think it would be nice to make that even more diverse on enemies, as long as it makes sense somehow and is properly portrayed in the encyclopedia entries.

 

[gkathellar]

 

 

Huh, I didn't know that. Is that in the encyclopedia or do you have to calculate it from the data in the combatlog by comparing different saving throws? If it's the latter, it's kind of obscure.

 

Coastal Aumaua and mountain dwarves both have specialized defense bonuses, and there are talents covering basically every type of effect.

 

I guess you mean stuff like 'Mentral Fortress' or 'Body Control'?

In that case, I knew about them (also mentioned them indirectly before) but my point is, they are grouped, so you can't separate them in any combination. It's not possible to have an arbitrary combination of increased resistance against afflictions. That's totally fine for the player, but I think it would be nice to make that even more diverse on enemies, as long as it makes sense somehow and is properly portrayed in the encyclopedia entries.

 

Yeah, those. There are also items like the Boots of Stability, and some rings, IIRC. I'm mostly just noting that the code for resistances to particular afflictions already exists in the game, so if the devs want to add those kind of affliction resistances to enemies willy-nilly, there's no barrier to doing so.

[Doppelschwert]

 

I guess you mean stuff like 'Mentral Fortress' or 'Body Control'?

In that case, I knew about them (also mentioned them indirectly before) but my point is, they are grouped, so you can't separate them in any combination. It's not possible to have an arbitrary combination of increased resistance against afflictions. That's totally fine for the player, but I think it would be nice to make that even more diverse on enemies, as long as it makes sense somehow and is properly portrayed in the encyclopedia entries.

 

Yeah, those. There are also items like the Boots of Stability, and some rings, IIRC. I'm mostly just noting that the code for resistances to particular afflictions already exists in the game, so if the devs want to add those kind of affliction resistances to enemies willy-nilly, there's no barrier to doing so.

 

Fair enough, I see what you mean now. The way I understood some of joshs comments makes me believe they use talents because you can't directly affect the resistances against afflictions in their editor, so instead they check the availability of those talents when the affliction method is called.  In particular, if what I believe is true, then it's quite a lot of work to give enemies distinct values to those resistances by assigning new talents, because the number of checks for individual talents explodes in the affliction code, so you want the sources of these resistance talents small and manageable. At least I think it worked somehow like that in NWN2.

 

I understood your earlier comment to mean that they can manipulate the values directly in their editor already, hence my confusion by your remark.

[abaris]

So, any news on when the expansion is coming? Just a rough timeframe.

[lordkim]

 

Can saved games using beta patches be used when the real update arrives?

This should be okay.

 

so for real  you dont know ?

[Kaalrabistu]

Hi,

 

How about implementing an option for disabling level cap? I am stil on act2 (since release), refusing to continue without character development besides story progression. No mods for this either (updated atleast). Reading that level cap is only capping at 14 im guessing I wont progress beyond act2 anytime soon.

 

Thanks

[Sannom]

Hi,

 

How about implementing an option for disabling level cap?

What would be the point if there is no content for those extra levels?

[Nakia]

Hi,

 

How about implementing an option for disabling level cap? I am stil on act2 (since release), refusing to continue without character development besides story progression. No mods for this either (updated atleast). Reading that level cap is only capping at 14 im guessing I wont progress beyond act2 anytime soon.

 

Thanks

I like the fact that PoE is a story oriented RPG.  How can you truly role play if there is no reason to do so?  There plenty of games available for those whose main interest is combat and leveling up but not so many for those of us who prefer to step into a story and act out a chosen character.  We have seen more this year for which some of us are extremely grateful.  PoE has a very deep story that raises more questions than it answers which I fin stimulating and refreshing.  

 

Also as  Sannom what is the point of leveling up if there is no content for it?   When I was playing Oblivion without mods to make it harder my Breton Mage was so powerful at level 16 I had to use the console to decrease her stats in order to have a challenge even playing on the had difficulty.  

 

I do wish PoE was more modable so that we could all get what we want.

[gkathellar]

Hi,

 

How about implementing an option for disabling level cap? I am stil on act2 (since release), refusing to continue without character development besides story progression. No mods for this either (updated atleast). Reading that level cap is only capping at 14 im guessing I wont progress beyond act2 anytime soon.

 

Thanks

 

Disabling the level cap would just mean dead levels with slightly higher numbers. I'm not sure what the point of that would be.

 

If you're determined to only play when you can gain XP for it, though, you should probably play with IEMod for the increased XP requirements.

 

Anyway, this is really an issue with the experience curve of the game and the distribution of XP rewards between sidequests and main quests. It's not totally clear that it's a fixable issue, due to the need to cater to both people looking for 100% completion and critical path players.

[Kaalrabistu]

Fair points, and I agree in all of them. i`ts just that I love the game otherwise, always dreamed of a isometric handcrafted background 3d inhabitant rpg with a good story and non linear play if wanted, d&d style.

 

I wish they had made the character tables very high to begin with, enough to last couple expansions, tweak and nerf/buff as expansions rolled out. And keep content last, but hey, there`s still time to fix. Hopefully more expansions will roll out and content to be balanced so that level cap can not be reached, it shouldnt be reached in the first place is my opinion. As it is RP character development should not cap, one never stops learning. As I have seen in other games you get really OP end game. It should really level out endgame as lvl cap disabled would do, ofc some talents would be cool aswell. 

 

Also I miss a luck roll.

 

Speed runners and critical path players will always find their place even if it is a perfect (impossible) game.

[Gary1986]

So BAdler hows the beta build coming along? Is it on track to be released today still?

Edited August 3, 2015 by Gary1986

[Berndor]

So BAdler hows the beta build coming along? Is it on track to be released today still?

Be patient, it is just 2 hours after midnight in California ;-)

[Guest FlorianGh]

how big is the patch gonna be? I have limited connection on holiday :D

[Steelrick]

Beta Patch still coming out today on steam?

[BAdler]

So BAdler hows the beta build coming along? Is it on track to be released today still?

 

Not well. It is a tricky thing trying to pull apart the base game files from the expansion right now. We are trying to prevent story elements from leaking out before the expansion's release so we are Frankensteining a build together. There are a few things that came back from testing that need to be removed (or strings that need to be added), so unfortunately it won't be up until tomorrow at the latest.

 

I will give you guys an update tomorrow whether we are going to push it live or not.

 

Sorry, guys.