Backer Beta Update 2 Patch Notes

[Aarik D]

(EDIT) Updated this post with Systems Changes, Known Issues, and fixed formatting

 

Ahoy Backers and Watchers!
 
Get ready to set sail and venture into glory! We're happy to announce that we have a big update happening for the Backer Beta! We are now introducing Ship Combat, Crew Members, Items, and Enchanting/Crafting into the beta! As always, we would really appreciate on getting as much feedback as possible and have fun!
 
Please note that older saves will not work on the latest patch! Apologies for the inconvenience.
 
NEW CONTENT
 
Ship Crew - Crewmembers specific to Ships and Ship Combats have been added to the Backer Beta! Ship Crew will manage your ship and man specific roles during ship combat, so they're essential to your seafaring adventure. Proper crew management is the key to an effective crew. Ship crew is accessed through the Ship Management [H] Menu.
 
Ship Items - Items to aid you in combat such as cannons have been added to the Backer Beta as well. This includes components to the ship, as well as Food, Equipment, and Cargo. Ship Items are also accessed via the Ship Management [H] Menu.
 
Ship Combat - Ship Combat has been added to the Backer Beta. Ships will now sail around on the world map and can attack or be attacked by your ship. Clicking on any ship will allow the player to engage in Ship Combat in our unique Ship Combat system. We would love feedback on this!
 
Enchanting/Crafting - Enchanting and Crafting system has been added! You can access Crafting from the Inventory Menu, and with the correct recipes will be able to craft specific items to aid you in game.

• Enchanting will be possible with unique weapons, and Right-Clicking on any item that is able to be Enchanted will display a button that will give access to the possible enchants available 

Inventory on World Map - A quality of life change we hope you all will enjoy, Inventory is now accessible when on the world map. This is something we feel will benefit the player greatly as you travel on land or sea!
 

SYSTEMS CHANGES

 

General Changes:

• Very Fast, Fast, Average, and Slow Recovery times have been increased by 1s each
• Slow and Very Slow Cast Times have been reduced by 1s each
• Dual Recovery bonus has been reduced from -50% to -30% Recovery
• Armor Recovery Penalty changed across all three armor types
  • Heavy Armor changed  from 67% to -38%
  • Medium Armor changed  from -82% to -45%
  • Light Armor changed from -50% to -30%

 

 

• Whisper of Treason’s Duration has been doubled (10s -> 20s)
• Wounding Shot has again been reduced, now from 33% damage per tick to 20% damage per tick
• Flames of Devotion has been reduced from +50% burn proc to +30% burn proc
• Lightning Strikes has been reduced from +50% shock proc to +30% shock proc
• Assassinate Critical Hit damage reduced from +100% damage to +50% damage
• Very Fast, Fast, Average, and Slow Recovery Times have been increased by 1s each
• Slow and Very Slow Cast Times have been reduced by 1s each
• Dual Wield Recovery bonus has been reduced from -50% to -30% Recovery
• Beckoner now also reduces summon duration by roughly (~25%)
• Many chanter summons that had base durations above 30s have had their base duration reduced
• Armored Grace has had its effect halved, because of how Armor Speed factor functions, this equates roughly to the following:
  • With Heavy Armor: Was -67% of Armor Recovery Penalty, is now -38% reduced penalty
  • With Medium Armor: Was -82% of Armor Recovery Penalty, is now – 45% reduced penalty
  • With Light Armor: Was -100% of Armor Recovery Penalty, is now -65% reduced penalty
• Berserker Frenzy Hit to Crit bonus reduced from +50% to +30%
• Marked Prey now only provides Accuracy, reduced from +15 to +10
• Sworn Enemy now only provides Damage at +20%
• Thrust of Tattered Veils damage reduced down to 10-18
• Almost all Slow and Very Slow cast speed spells that dealt direct damage have had their damage increased by roughly 30% (pulse effects were mostly omitted)

• Corpse Eater and Flesh Communion now state that the barbarian must consume "deceased" corpses, unconscious does not suffice.
• Ascendant has been redesigned to "Ascend" at maximum focus, which causes all cipher powers to cost 0 focus and gain bonus power level until the effect fades, at which point the cipher will fall to 0 focus.
• Race tooltips in character creation should no longer display missing strings.
• Power Pool now has a glossary entry that matches the Power Pool tutorial.
• Paladin's Glorious Beacon (and its upgrades) now has a base duration of 8s (up from 4s)
• Considerably increased the duration of the debuffs from Barbaric Yell and its upgrades.
• Mule Kick's Discipline cost is lowered from 3 to 2.
• Hobbling Shot's Hobble effect increased to 10s base duration.
• Evasive Fire now uses the Strength Attribute for scaling.
• Ranger's Predator Sense damage bonus increased from +20% to +50% on target's with DoT effects.
• Strike the Bell and its upgrades are reduced from 3 guile cost to 2.
• Torment's Reach now uses Strength to calculate damage.
• Priest's Halt duration raised from 10s to 15s base.
• Devotions for the Faithful will now roll against Will defense for the hostile portion of its attack (previously wasn't rolling defense)
• Priest Prayers and Litany spells can now be used on Charmed or CC'd party members to counter affliction effects.
• Her Revenge Swept Across attacks are no longer Slow Recovery and have the same penetration as the base ability "Thrice Was She Wronged"
• Lowered the base duration of Paralyze and Frighten on "At The Sound of His Voice the Killers Froze Stiff" from 8s to 6s.
• Reny Daret's Ghost Spake and its upgrade have had their debuff durations increased from 12s to 15s.
• Doubled the Disengage Accuracy penalty on "The Fox From the Farmer Did Leap" phrase, from -10 to -20.
• Aefyllath now is restricted to weapon attacks only.
• Cipher's Mind Wave Raw Damage increased from 8-10 to 10-15.
• Amplified Thrust damage increased from 16-24 to 30-38.
• Soul Ignition base damage per tick raised from 14 to 16.
• Brutal Backlash's base damage increased from 12 Raw to 20.
• Cipher "Keen Mind" passive now grants more focus at the beginning of combat, from +5 to +10.
• Autumn's Decay initial damage increase to 20-28 Corrode to differentiate it more from Touch of Rot.
• Round shields and Heater shield icons hooked up.
• Nature's Balm base duration lowered from 18s to 15s.
• Form of the Delemgan now uses a Stride Mult rather than deprecated additive movement, set at (+25%).
• Form of the Delemgan typed AR bonuses lowered from +8 to +6.
• Cleansing Wind's base heal value increased from 28 to 48.
• Deleterious Alacrity of Motion self-damage lowered from base 8 to 6.
• Confusion's base duration increased from 20s to 30s.
• Arkemyr's Wondrous Torment base duration increased from 10s to 30s and cast time reduced to Average with Average Recovery.
• Form of the Helpless Beast base duration increased from 10s to 15s.
• Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring's base damage lowered from 18-22 per tick down to 8-10 and the duration lowered from 15s to 12s.
• Ringleader's Charm and Dominate increased from base 10s to 20s.
• Puppetmaster and Ringleader are no longer combat only.
• Tactical Meld is now combat only.
• Carnage's damage attribute is now Strength.
• Beckoner summons now mention in their stat blocks that they are increased in summon count due to Beckoner.
• Strike the Bell and its upgrades now all properly apply their effects and also gain the inherent penetration bonus. Also added custom strings so this reads more cleanly.
• Wrath of the Five Suns is now shown as an upgrade to Sworn Enemy on the talent tree and Sworn Enemy is not removed.
• Lingering Echoes now uses a custom string for its numerous bonuses.
• Hunter's Instincts now references the new Graze changes.
• Bleeding Cut, Destructive Channeling, Wild Mind, Ascendant, and Mage Slayer effects all have custom strings to be human readable.
• Call to Slumber now uses a unique "Asleep" affliction and no longer refers to this as "Unconscious".
• Conjure Familiar now only mentions summoned creatures in the stat block, so there should be no more confusion about what kinds of creatures it summons.
• Conjure Familiar bonuses have all been tuned up. (more tuning coming)
• Unarmed Proficiency has been created and should be available soon, (Pending a code change with weapon proficiency restrictions) - It will be auto-granted to everyone.
• Withering Strike, Perishing Strike, Toxic Strike, and Mule Kick all have 25% bonus damage and it is visible on their stat block.
• Druid Fury no longer references Regeneration as a keyword and will only reference "Rejuvenation".
• Mage Slayer now actually gains their "Spell Resistance" rather than the temp spell defense bonus.
• Stag Carnage, Shattered Pillar, Wild Leech now all have human readable strings.
• Maura Tentacle no longer has a recursive loop on its immobilize on hit effect.
• Unbroken subclass string now clearly mentions "Shield Mastery".
• Brand Enemy now properly ticks damage again.
• Evoker "Echo" effect reduced from a 30% proc chance to 15%.
• Fury Druid Storm's Rage now benefits from Fury's passive penetration bonus.
• And lots more... 

 

 

KNOWN ISSUES

• Ship management 'Voyager' Ship Name is a Missing String
• Veen combat has multiple NPCs without equipment (happens after boarding them)
• Helmsman is not placed correctly on the ship deck
• Healing the Boars in the encounter can be attempted by all character with incorrect abilities

BUG FIXES
Thanks to all you wonderful gamers providing tons of feedback/bugs. We have been able to address those tons of bugs over the past month; here are some of the highlights. Be aware that the following list contains possible spoilers to some Backer Beta content for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire.
 
General Issues:

• (FIXED) Quicksaving and Loading on the World Map causes Character Portrait to change
• (FIXED) Gains 3 levels per multiclass rather than 2
• (FIXED) Chat Scroll bar is reversed
• (FIXED) Interacting with the Windswept Shrine
• (FIXED) Monk Shattered Pillar's Wound ability is not clear to the player
• (FIXED) Desert Wurm Hatchling active effect displays twice in Character Sheet
• (FIXED) Desert Wurm Hatchling has the incorrect icon
• (FIXED) Killing Broodmother and Himuihi triggers a Quest Failed pop up
• (FIXED) Vektor has multiple duplicate barks after completing Poko Kohara
• (FIXED) Post level up skills are incorrect from what character spent in level up
• (FIXED) Battle Axe modal has temp descriptions in status bar
• (FIXED) Blunderbuss modal has temp description in status bar
• (FIXED) Godlike Body time has Temp description in Character Creation
• (FIXED) The Edit Grimoire button has been changed to View Grimoire
• (FIXED) Resting on a mat in Tikawara shows an inn cutscene
• (FIXED) Rod's Blast Weapon modal does not grant any bonus

Class Specific:

• (FIXED) Ghostheart subclass has some abilities that don’t work on level up
• (FIXED) Corpse Eater and Flesh Communion now state that the barbarian must consume "deceased" corpses, unconscious does not suffice
• (FIXED) Chanter Troubadour ability has missing strings
• (FIXED) Druid shapeshift forms have incorrect attack icons
• (FIXED) Multiclass characters can spend their additional point on one class
• (FIXED) Trickster subclass does not learn Dazzling Lights inherently
• (FIXED) It is possible to avoid the Devoted subclass penalty
• (FIXED) Druid's Storm Rage ability is missing Penetration bonus from Fury Subclass
• (FIXED) Nature's Resolve buff does not show the correct icon
• (FIXED) Get Over Here's ability has [TEMP] text in Character Creation
• (FIXED) Ascendant's Soul Whip does less damage when not at max focus

UI:

• (FIXED) Portrait and Voice set integers are very dark on the Character UI
• (FIXED) Characters can appear extremely large in the UI. It is hilarious
• (FIXED) Character Creation portraits are misaligned for the first row
• (FIXED) General Companions have a Wants to Talk icon that does not fire any dialogue

Spells and Abilities:

• (FIXED) Essential Phantom is casting an empty character model or bugged character
• (FIXED) Reflexive Mirror trigger can duplicate pets
• (FIXED) Arcane Veil causes weapon model to go missing
• (FIXED) Living Surge is not clear to user
• (FIXED) Reverse Pickpocket has no difficulty

Combat:

• (FIXED) Concelhauts staff uses modal damage.
• (FIXED) Summoned Weapons appear to be missing some bonuses for weapon types
• (FIXED) Dual wielding Pistols does not reload as intended
• (FIXED) Corrosive damage is calculating incorrectly
• (FIXED) Swapping Modal allows for ranged weapons to have no recovery reload time
• (FIXED) Skeletal Sorcerers are attacking themselves in Engwithan Station
• (FIXED) Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff model disappears in combat
• (FIXED) Skeletal Enemies are not weak to Crush damage
• (FIXED) Engwithan Titan has very low deflection.

Linux:

• (FIXED) LINUX - Character Creation appears when loading or re-entering Tikawara
• (FIXED) LINUX - Encounters do not disappear

macOS:

• (FIXED) MAC - Game will no longer crash on launch

[Ethics Gradient]

macOS:

• (FIXED) MAC - Game will no longer crash on launch.

  Best patch ever!   

 

Edit:  3.9 GB of patchy goodness on GOG/MacOS.

Edited February 1, 2018 by Ethics Gradient

[Advisorcloud]

What's that, play some more? Don't need to tell me twice!

[Treys]

 

(FIXED) It is possible to avoid the Devoted subclass penalty

 

Does this mean it is no longer possible to avoid the penalty, or that it now is now possible to avoid it?

[Wormerine]

Thank you!

[aartz]

 

Have fun with your ship crew, everyone =)

[Glurak]

Just a question. Am i allowed to do a Twitch Stream and/or do Youtube Videos of the Content?

[Cdiaz]

 

 

(FIXED) It is possible to avoid the Devoted subclass penalty

 

Does this mean it is no longer possible to avoid the penalty, or that it now is now possible to avoid it?

 

If you pick Devoted, you will always have the penalty now.

[Alexzipse]

Unfortunately, the beta is still an endless black screen for me when I launch the game. Running on a Mac, not sure what to do :/

[Christliar]

I was expecting more significant changes, like casters in general or at least the fixing of game-breaking bugs, like Spiritual Weapon hitting for ridiculous damages. There's also no mention of Skaen Priest's missing Sneak Attack, are they supposed to not get Sneak Attack anymore? That'd be lame.

[Cdiaz]

Unfortunately, the beta is still an endless black screen for me when I launch the game. Running on a Mac, not sure what to do :/

Oh no :/ Can you elaborate a bit on your steps to load? Does it attempt the game on steam and just black screen, or are you able to get into a New Game?

[DexGames]

I don't think this has ever been mentionned but, for Quality of Life :

• I wanna point out that you can't change Game Speed on the World Map. Say :
• You were dealing with some Quests in Tikawara [Welcome !... ], at Normal Speed, and you wanna travel. So you get on your Ship.
• But if you want to Travel Faster at any time, you have to re-enter a "Location", change the Game Speed to Fast, & then get back on your Ship.

So, yeah maybe add this if you can. 

[Alexzipse]

 

Unfortunately, the beta is still an endless black screen for me when I launch the game. Running on a Mac, not sure what to do :/

Oh no :/ Can you elaborate a bit on your steps to load? Does it attempt the game on steam and just black screen, or are you able to get into a New Game?

 

I can get to the title screen, but when I launch a new game it never gets to the character creation, there's just a black screen unfortunately.

[IndiraLightfoot]

 

Have fun with your ship crew, everyone =)

Avast, ya salty dogs!

[Cdiaz]

 

 

Unfortunately, the beta is still an endless black screen for me when I launch the game. Running on a Mac, not sure what to do :/

Oh no :/ Can you elaborate a bit on your steps to load? Does it attempt the game on steam and just black screen, or are you able to get into a New Game?

 

I can get to the title screen, but when I launch a new game it never gets to the character creation, there's just a black screen unfortunatel

Alright thank you for the info, that helps! Can you first try giving it a good amount of time on the black screen? There we some bugs with the loading screen on first load.

[Treys]

 

 

 

(FIXED) It is possible to avoid the Devoted subclass penalty

 

Does this mean it is no longer possible to avoid the penalty, or that it now is now possible to avoid it?

 

If you pick Devoted, you will always have the penalty now.

 

I like this, if it means what I think it means. I thought it was silly that multiclassing a devoted allowed you to pick up other weapon proficiency and bypass the devoted penalty. At least I hope this is what this change fixed :D

[aartz]

I don't think this has ever been mentionned but, for Quality of Life :

• I wanna point out that you can't change Game Speed on the World Map. Say :
• You were dealing with some Quests in Tikawara [Welcome !... ], at Normal Speed, and you wanna travel. So you get on your Ship.
• But if you want to Travel Faster at any time, you have to re-enter a "Location", change the Game Speed to Fast, & then get back on your Ship.

So, yeah maybe add this if you can. 

 

You should be able to change the game speed on the world map via the hotkey you have it mapped to. It defaults to unbound, but if you set one in the controls it should work on the world map.

[Cdiaz]

 

 

 

 

(FIXED) It is possible to avoid the Devoted subclass penalty

 

Does this mean it is no longer possible to avoid the penalty, or that it now is now possible to avoid it?

 

If you pick Devoted, you will always have the penalty now.

 

I like this, if it means what I think it means. I thought it was silly that multiclassing a devoted allowed you to pick up other weapon proficiency and bypass the devoted penalty. At least I hope this is what this change fixed :D

 

Yep! It was always the intention, though with so many different permutations it is a challenge to catch them all! Enter you amazing backer beta players  

[Chariot7]

Are old saved games no longer accessible?

[dukeisaac]

Music to my ears all this. GF gone for the weekend, I think I'll take the sailboat out...

[SaruNi]

"(FIXED) Corpse Eater cannot be used on Call to Slumber Kith targets."

 

So now it can? Wow. That is beautiful.

 

"(FIXED) Ascendant's Soul Whip does less damage when not at max focus."

 

Thought the class description said ascendant's soul whip was supposed to do less damage when not at max focus, but ascendant was underpowered anyway, so I like this change.

[SaruNi]

I was expecting more significant changes, like casters in general or at least the fixing of game-breaking bugs, like Spiritual Weapon hitting for ridiculous damages. There's also no mention of Skaen Priest's missing Sneak Attack, are they supposed to not get Sneak Attack anymore? That'd be lame.

 

Spiritual Weapon was hitting for ridiculous damage because corrosive damage (spiritual weapons have a corrode lash) in general was bugged. They've fixed that so Spiritual Weapon should be fine now:

 

"(FIXED) Corrosive damage is calculating incorrectly."

Edited February 2, 2018 by SaruNi

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I was expecting more significant changes, like casters in general or at least the fixing of game-breaking bugs, like Spiritual Weapon hitting for ridiculous damages. There's also no mention of Skaen Priest's missing Sneak Attack, are they supposed to not get Sneak Attack anymore? That'd be lame.

Cast times have been reduced by a second each for previously 6 and 9 second spells, with recovery being one second longer. It's still not enough to make casters compete with martial classes.

[Ethics Gradient]

 

Have fun with your ship crew, everyone =)

IRoll20s

GiveItem CRW_Shiba_Inu_Cannoneer

GiveItem CRW_Shiba_Inu_Cook

GiveItem CRW_Shiba_Inu_Surgeon

GiveItem CRW_Shiba_Inu_Navigator

GiveItem CRW_Shiba_Inu_Helmsman

GivePlayerShip SHP_Shiba_Partyboat

 

Darn.  None of that seems too work!

[Cdiaz]

Are old saved games no longer accessible?

Sorry! That was not added and I will make a note of it, but older saves will indeed not work w latest patch