3.05 Live on Steam

[ORCACommander]

1.3GB to push 2 changes? damn the data structures of this game are monolithic

[JerekKruger]

1.3GB to push 2 changes? damn the data structures of this game are monolithic

 

The Steam patcher simply downloads the entire modified game file and overwrites the existing one, rather than modifying it.

[Xaratas]

What about this, freakin' balance tweakers?

Maybe, you should spent your time fixing bugs?

Broken Encding in the Stringtables? And that now? We have corrected it in the first versions of the German Fix, and the Russian Locale had it too.

[Aurelio]

 

What about this, freakin' balance tweakers?

Maybe, you should spent your time fixing bugs?

Broken Encding in the Stringtables? And that now? We have corrected it in the first versions of the German Fix, and the Russian Locale had it too.

 

I do not see this issue with steam. Which file and folder?

[hilfazer]

 

@Sking: is there any chance you could explain the rationale for this nerf 

 

 

No chance, but fear not for i have an answer for you.

 

The watchful eye of Obsidian has noticed than UB is overpowered when used by barbarian. That was unacceptable. So the decision was made to balance this weapon for one class while making it underpowered for all other classes.

Because one OP is worse for the game than 10 UP.

 

At least it was not /5ed like Sure-Handed Ila / Beloved Spirits or /4ed like Blizzard.

[JerekKruger]

Whilst I'm still a bit confused and annoyed about the UB nerf, I've learnt how to change it back manually and, at the same time, learnt the very basics of modding PoE, so it's not all bad.

[Phenomenum]

 

 

What about this, freakin' balance tweakers?

Maybe, you should spent your time fixing bugs?

Broken Encding in the Stringtables? And that now? We have corrected it in the first versions of the German Fix, and the Russian Locale had it too.

 

I do not see this issue with steam. Which file and folder?

 

It appears in many books. At least in Russian, yes. And yes, i know about fanmod fixing this, but it's not right when modders do their job - this issue was never fixed officially in patch.

Edited November 24, 2016 by Phenomenum

[Aurelio]

 

 

 

What about this, freakin' balance tweakers?

Maybe, you should spent your time fixing bugs?

Broken Encding in the Stringtables? And that now? We have corrected it in the first versions of the German Fix, and the Russian Locale had it too.

 

I do not see this issue with steam. Which file and folder?

 

It appears in many books. At least in Russian, yes. And yes, i know about fanmod fixing this, but it's not right when modders do their job - this issue was never fixed officially in patch.

 

 

Seems to be only in items.stringtable in russian. at least in data and expansion1- Did not check the other languages. I think the _x000D  is an issue with the excel export. The text however seemed fine. But could be an encoding issue. With UTF-8 with BOM it looks ok.

[Phenomenum]

Indeed. It's small issue and they can't (or don't want) fix it for more than half a year.
This is just one example - several, not gamebreaking but annoying, issues (backstab attacks from invis, wrong damage type of swords for certain creatures, bug with Escape from Cape of Cheat when you can't attack enemies after the jump, wrong indicator for Cipher's Mindwave and many more) still appears in game, but they don't repair it, prefer stupid tweaking instead.
Looks like people had a huge amount of free time and thinking: "Well, we have no work to do, sooo... let's tweak some items!" - then randomly picks victim, - "Sorry Unlabored Blade, you got the short end of the stick today..."

Edited November 25, 2016 by Phenomenum

[DiabolicallyRandom]

 

For a minor patch, you must have totally fubar'd steam. 1.3 GB download, and I'm not the only one. https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/5ef0ra/13_gb_update_today/

 

As mentioned in that Reddit thread, Steam's patcher simply rewrites the entire game file that contains the change. I predict GOG's patch will be a few MB.

 

Because they are doing it wrong. Steam has diff-patching now, and has for some time. They just aren't using the patch system properly on steam. Maybe because they don't know how, or maybe because they are too lazy. IDK.

[JerekKruger]

Because they are doing it wrong. Steam has diff-patching now, and has for some time. They just aren't using the patch system properly on steam. Maybe because they don't know how, or maybe because they are too lazy. IDK.

 

Interesting. I will admit that, since I have fairly fast internet and no download limits, I don't really mind how big the patch is, but I can understand how annoying it must be for those without one of those two things.

[PangaeaACDC]

Don't really get the big upset about the nerfing of a weapon that the base game doesn't even contain. (But for that reason, I've never tried it either, so don't know how good it was, or if it was overpowered).

 

Happened to come across a little bug yesterday, on 3.04. In one of the early-ish levels of Cuad Nua (the one with many xaurips and wurms), there was a bit battle close to a trap, and I tried to use Hiravias to disable the trap during the battle. For some reason he got stuck in place, and couldn't move, not after combat was over either. The trap wasn't disabled, but still glowed red on the floor. I couldn't get him to move no matter what.

 

Saved the game and reloaded it, and that sorted him out. So little point in sending it in as it probably won't reproduce.

 

I'm still pretty early in this playthrough, but there is already quite a few seconds to wait every time the game loads anything. This is *THE* thing that needs to be improved - lots - for PoE2. You could release the exact same game with a different story and location for all I care, and I'd probably buy it as long as loading doesn't take a stupid amount of time every time you enter a door, new area, whatever. Like written in some other place, pretty soon it feels like half your time with the game is spent staring at that damn loading screen

[JerekKruger]

Don't really get the big upset about the nerfing of a weapon that the base game doesn't even contain. (But for that reason, I've never tried it either, so don't know how good it was, or if it was overpowered).

 

I'm not really sure why the fact the base game doesn't contain the Unlabored Blade is relevant.

 

Anyway, it was a good weapon, but not overpowered (or if it was, there were a lot of even more overpowered weapons). The main thing is that it was one of a very small group of Soulbound weapons that wasn't rubbish. Most Soulbound weapons are outperformed by their regular brethren, which is a huge shame given the effort put into their lore and the taken to unlock them. With this nerf, that group is one smaller, as the Unlabored Blade is now outperformed (for non-Barbarians) by a White March Dagger with the Legendary Enchant and a Flaming Lash.

 

Meanwhile, there are plenty of actual bugs left in the game that Obsidian could have been fixing, but they chose to take the time to nerf this weapon, making the game a little less fun.

 

It's not a major issue, but hopefully you can see why it's annoying.

 

I'm still pretty early in this playthrough, but there is already quite a few seconds to wait every time the game loads anything. This is *THE* thing that needs to be improved - lots - for PoE2. You could release the exact same game with a different story and location for all I care, and I'd probably buy it as long as loading doesn't take a stupid amount of time every time you enter a door, new area, whatever. Like written in some other place, pretty soon it feels like half your time with the game is spent staring at that damn loading screen

 

 

Yeah, load times are pretty awful. I think I read somewhere that this is related to the way the Unity engine does things, so hopefully the newer version of Unity will improve matters for PoE2.

[PangaeaACDC]

Don't get me wrong, I can see why it's annoying, but I also think this might be a case of the small minority being overly vocal about it.

 

That said, in general I think one of the underwhelming aspects of the game is the lack of weapons or items that 'feel' awesome, like for instance some gear in BG. Of course, that could kind of be a strength too, in the sense that you don't HAVE TO get that super-duper-awesome weapon, and just about any build is doable. But it also makes the game kind of pedestrian, if you get my meaning. I guess there isn't a perfect way to do it, and I simply miss that feeling from BG of getting that weapon that truly felt fantastic. Nothing in this game really works that way, though that is also down to how stats/attributes work.

 

Whatever is the cause for the massive loading times, it better be sorted out for PoE2. If Unity is so inefficient, I don't see the reason to use it. Okay, it's cheap and accessible, but Obsidian isn't making games out of their basement.

[AndreaColombo]

Don't get me wrong, I can see why it's annoying, but I also think this might be a case of the small minority being overly vocal about it.

 

If only a minority were using the weapon, why make sure absolutely no one does so going forward by applying a nerf that nobody ever called for? (Provided that it is indeed a minority who actually have the expansion.)

[JerekKruger]

Don't get me wrong, I can see why it's annoying, but I also think this might be a case of the small minority being overly vocal about it.

 

Are only a small minority of players here, complaining about this nerf? Of course. Only a tiny minority of people who own Pillars are even active on these forums. Most people who have played Pillars have probably never fully unlocked the Unlabored Blade, many have probably never even picked it up. None of this makes the nerf a good idea or a good use of Obsidian's time*.

 

Yes, the Unlabored Blade was very powerful when used by a Barbarian. What I don't understand is why, in a noncompetitive single player game this matters. If people want to play an overpowered build then so what? Why did Obsidian feel the need to step in a stop someone having fun in their particular way, on their own, in their own time? Moreover why did they feel the need to do so in a way that made the Unlabored Blade underpowered for every other class. "Sorry dagger wielding Rogue, because someone somewhere is making the game too easy using the Unlabored Blade with a Barbarian we are making this otherwise cool item less good than a boringly named dagger available at the end of Act I with some enchantments."

 

Now I've found a way to revert the UB to its original form, so it's not a big deal for me gameplay wise (and I am not going to use it on a Barbarian anyway since I think Barbarians look silly wielding daggers), but it's the attitude of Obsidian that bothers me. This sort of behaviour is what I'd expect in a MOBA, where balance is important, but it's precisely to get away from this sort of thing that I come to single player games. Baldur's Gate 2 was objectively terribly balanced and yet somehow it managed to be fun. In fact a lot of the fun for many players was because of this, both in learning the system so well as to be able to build ridiculously powerful characters, and challenging themselves trying to beat it with bad ones. It's a shame to see BG2's spiritual successor move away from that.

 

*I realise it probably took about five minutes to do. I think those five minutes would have been better spent letting the programmer who did it go home earlier it's such a pointless change.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I doubt you'd have gotten a bug fix if they didn't spend the time to nerf Unlabored Blade. Most likely, you just would have gotten a one-change patch.

[mishkoff]

To whom it may interest, a link to Unlabored Blade pre last Hotfix - https://www.dropbox.com/s/acwmpu1vaoo17f3/blade.zip?dl=0  extract that to assetbundles and it will work. Only issue is that model is missing, so you are running with pink dagger. Maybe some will find a way to fix that.

[Livegood118]

To whom it may interest, a link to Unlabored Blade pre last Hotfix - https://www.dropbox.com/s/acwmpu1vaoo17f3/blade.zip?dl=0  extract that to assetbundles and it will work. Only issue is that model is missing, so you are running with pink dagger. Maybe some will find a way to fix that.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/90344-how-to-modify-spell-chance-on-hit-effects-in-uab-extractor/

 

We figured out how to edit it on the current patch – it's a little bit of tinkering with the Unity Asset Bundle Extractor but nothing too scary.

[JerekKruger]

I doubt you'd have gotten a bug fix if they didn't spend the time to nerf Unlabored Blade. Most likely, you just would have gotten a one-change patch.

 

Almost certainly yes, since it took Livegood118 very little time to reverse the change using the UABE and I imagine Obsidian programmers have better tools and are more familiar with the code. I still think it would have been a better patch with just one change though.

[Raygereio]

To whom it may interest, a link to Unlabored Blade pre last Hotfix - https://www.dropbox.com/s/acwmpu1vaoo17f3/blade.zip?dl=0  extract that to assetbundles and it will work. Only issue is that model is missing, so you are running with pink dagger. Maybe some will find a way to fix that.

Not to self-advertise, but here's the unnerfed patch 3.5 version.

I don't know of good way to apply this to a save where you've already fully unlocked the unlabored blade. You'll have to use console commands in that case.

[AlexDeLarge]

I must be in the minority, but i want to see a lot more nerfs, not just unlabored blade (which is a very odd choice by Obsidian to prioritize this in particular, i might add), the game is just too easy towards the 2nd half. I'm looking at you, Relentless Storm...

Edited November 27, 2016 by AlexDeLarge

[JerekKruger]

No, I also think the game is too easy and am not opposed to nerfs in general. I think the sabre nerf was a good change for example. It's badly thought out nerfs that I'm against, and this is a prime example of such. I don't think anyone is going to find Pillars significantly more difficult as a result of this nerf, but I do think the Unlabored Blade will be used much less.

[theBalthazar]

There is a lot of nerf for equity. But targeting Relentness storm precisely is not useful.  For exemple this spell is useless VS radiant spore...

 

More, there is a big list :

 

Priest.

Wizard.

A certain electrical bow

Relentness storm

 

target specifically one will not serve anything, if not obliged the players to take what remains more effective.

 

 

Do not forget that you know the game on your fingertips. The game must remain accessible a minimum. For casual, for experienced players and for experts who do not want too micro every hundredths of a second.

Edited November 28, 2016 by theBalthazar

[AlexDeLarge]

I wasn't specifically targeting storm, but it does stand out as the most glaringly OP spell in the game. If i were in charge of balance, the things i'd take care of first would be:

 

Relentless Storm

Ninagauth's Shadowflame

Devotions of the Faithful

Crowns of the Faithful

Dragon Thrashed maybe as well (no more stacking with itself)

 

I think these are the main culprits that turn an otherwise challenging game into a faceroll.

 

Also, i would make High Level scaling actually scale a lot more (something like 60% instead of 33%, scale Adra and Alpine dragons as well to at least level 16) and make most bosses immune or highly resistant to all debuffs (the fact that you can charm one of the bog dragons with a level 1 spell is ridiculous to me, for example).

Edited November 28, 2016 by AlexDeLarge