Sking

Hey you bunch of inquisitive gamers, We added a few tweaks to the ship combat for this backer beta patch. Please give it another go and let us know if we are at least headed in the right direction. I got your backs - SKing

Hey mrhawn, Hmmm... This issue seems to unique to the Backer Beta version. Our full release of the Deadfire will have these resolution options. Sorry we missed this for the patch. - Sking [Edit] I may have found a fix for this you guys can do on your ends. This fixed it for me on my end. Close out of the Beta client Run your regedit.exe (type regedit into your windows search bar) Find both Pillars of Eternity folders Computer/User/Software/Obsidian/Pillars of Eternity II Computer/User/Software/Obsidian/Pillars of Eternity 2 Delete both Launch the Beta client

Hey you bunch of sensatinal gamers, Our update is now live! To gain access to the Backer Beta, visit this (Forum Link) for step by step instructions. This is a Beta and will most definitely contain a few issues. Please report any issues you find here (Forum Link). We spent a long time going over everyone's feedback from the last BB Update and changed quite a few things around. You'll notice this patch is almost entirely system changes. A full breakdown of the changes are listed below. Jump in and definitely keep the feedback coming. NEW CONTENT Please note that older saves will not work on the latest patch! Apologies for the inconvenience. Save File location moved From - %USERPROFILE%/Saved Games/Pillars of Eternity 2 To - %USERPROFILE%/Saved Games/Pillars of Eternity II Action Bar revision - The HUD art has been revised for the action bar. We added a bit of flair to the empower portion specifically. Optimizations - Ongoing performance optimizations for GPU and CPU. Smart Camera - New toggle-able camera mode that has the camera follow the players movements automatically. This option can be toggled 'on' or 'off' in the options menu. Combat Slider - New combat slider added to the center of the HUD. You can now slow/speed up combat at your leisure ranging from very slow/slow to fast/very fast. Fast mode remains the same toggle outside of combat. New item Highlight - Items recently picked up that haven't been inspected by the player now highlight blue in the inventory. BB Content Changes BB character now begins with fine leather, fine mail, and fine plate All Grimoires in the BB now have 2 spells per level SYSTEM CHANGES Expanded Passive Abilities - To address feedback about the loss of Talents from PoE 1, we have added many more passive abilities to class trees and increased the number of abilities that single class characters receive at each power level (see below). Turn-Based ship combat - Ship duels are now conducted turn-by-turn instead of round-by-round. Half and full-sail movement actions are no longer restricted in frequency. Cannon re-balance - Cannon values have been re-balanced to make them strategic choices instead of upgrades Single Class characters gain 2 abilities at PL increase - All single class characters will gain 2 abilities every time they achieve a new power level. This change was made to address concerns that single class characters felt like they didn't have enough options at any given character level. It also allows characters to dip into passive abilities (which have been expanded considerably) more easily. Canceling cast doesn't take resource - Canceling an ability or item use, whether by movement, selecting another action, or simply hitting the cancel button, will not consume the resource associated with the ability. This makes changing actions much less punitive. An Interrupt will still consume the resources of an ability or item it Interrupts. Penetration re-balance - Weapons and spells have been reorganized around two penetration categories - average and high - instead of low/average/high. "Best of" weapons and spells typically have 1 lower Penetrations compared to other weapons and spells in their penetration category. Attribute Cap of 35 - To prevent the effects of Attributes from scaling away into infinity, they are now capped to 35. We chose this number based on both where we wanted the influence of Attributes to max out as well as what we believed was within the reach of aggressive min-maxers. Might/Resolve Change - Strength has been reverted to Might and affects Damage, Healing, and Fortitude as it did in Pillars 1. Resolve has also been reverted to affect Deflection and Will as it did in Pillars 1. We have added an additional benefit to Resolve: reduced duration of hostile effects (3% per point) on the character (increased if it is below 10). This was done in conjunction with capping Attributes to a max of 35. This does not address the primary goal of making Resolve more appealing for casters, but we believe it does make Resolve more generally valuable for a variety of characters. It also integrates into the system using mechanics that are already well-established, which is of importance at this stage of development. Thank you to everyone for your patience as we experimented with the attribute system and for the fans for continuing to discuss and suggest ideas throughout the project. Interrupt added to many rogue abilities - Most rogue abilities that are weapon-based attacks now Interrupt on Hit Weapon re-balance - Across the board weapon balance Druid Bonus Spells/Animist Subclass - Like priests, all druids now receive bonus spells at each power level. To make druids mechanically function like priests, the Animist subclass has been added and the "No Subclass" option has been removed.. Animists have no special modifiers other than access to a list of bonus spells. Martial Tree Unlock Level Adjustments - The levels at which the martial classes access various abilities have been adjusted, both to lower the overall requirements and to make a smoother progression as the characters advance. General Casting changes Shortened cast times of Very Slow and Slow Shortened Recovery of Slow Summon Weapon spells now Average cast Food/meal pricing reworked Cipher Buffs Cipher spells are all faster casts/ many were tuned up Cipher Focus gain rate doubled ('unedited' List of specific systems check ins) KNOWN ISSUES Lagufaeth Broodmother is missing a portrait and speaker tag Ranga Ruanu is missing a portrait Some items contain missing strings World map doesn't have BGM Veen is T-posing Save file thumbnail is incorrect Tikawara is mislabeled on the world map on first load. Abilities and weapon proficiencies are swapped in the character sheet menu (Mac Only) Boarding audio repeats. Restart the client to correct this issue. BUG FIXES Casters no longer passing up martial characters deflections due to Might/Resolve change (see above) Rogue - 'Gouging Strike' now shows appropriately sized numbers Corrosive Trap description now shows damage data Beza's corpse no longer has vision cone to detect stealth All Corrupted Adra Animat now all activate in the Engwithan Waystation Level Two Binding Mouse1 no longer locks character movement Gamma slider now functioning as intended Auto-pause descriptions now appear Assigning food to characters in the resting menu has been made easier Modals no longer duplicate on the action bar Can now target enemies on top of dead allies easier I got your back - SKing

Hey kujeger, I sent this over to our resident Linux tester Cdiaz. He'll hopefully be able to figure something out for you. I got your back - SKing

Hey SaruNi, I'm going to look into this one. I actually received an email about this yesterday and I couldn't figure it out. Thanks for this information. I'll update you, once I verify this and get it into our system. I got your back, SKing [Edit] Verified this and got it into our system. Thanks for reporting this one.

Hey you bunch of clubbable gamers, I received some feedback in my inbox from an anonymous source and I figured we could all benefit from the wonders of discussing it. "To write this, I have replayed through PoE1 and expansions, as well of course several times through the PoE2 beta: My thoughts are offered regarding the franchise as a whole." - A wonderfully verbose fan of Eora Character Creation: I remain bemused that elves are still described as intelligent but intellect is not one of their bonus statistics; intellect is not in the descriptor for “godlike”, yet for them it is a bonus statistic. Perhaps swap the two? Having the extra effects (and penalties) when multiclassing that reflect the combination of 2 classes: I thought that this a lovely feature that for me added depth, versatility, and scope for a greater variety of individual playstyle preferences. However given the nautical nature of the storyline, I was surprised that the deity Ondra is unavailable to priests. Moreover during character creation, to me it felt unintuitive that I could not move between different stages by clicking on the icons at the bottom of the screen (only on the “Next” button). Perhaps, partly this was because the mass of information accompanying the icons, and the white-on-dark colour scheme therof compared to the khaki on brown of the “Next”, drew my eyes to the wrong place on the screen. It is great to have the tips about particular attributes being recommended for the chosen class. I wonder whether it would be more logical to have character background right after character race, rather than following character class? Storytelling, cinematography, and music: Two things which grabbed me from the start in the Baldur’s Gate series, were the quote from Nietzsche (which introduced to me his work), and the use of dream sequences to introduce each chapter. This functioned rather like the introductory paragraph of an essay, establishing clearly the philosophical framework and theme for the story the player was about to experience. Consequently the whole story-arc just felt like it hung together better. The use of motifs from Maori or other Pacific Island native art to inform the user interface is a lovely touch and really adds to the game atmosphere! I absolutely adore the Art Nouveau-esque style used for Sun-In-Shadow (PoE1), the Engwithan Waystation (particularly the mosaics, PoE2), and elsewhere. I wish I could fill my real-world home with it! It reminded me of some of the elven art assets used in Shadows of Amn. I really like the art for the background to the main menu: Vertiginous mountainslopes clad in buildings right down to the water’s edge, a ship serenely sailing from port across a harbour tranquil as glass, and everywhere the lush verdure of tropical plantlife. It put me in mind of the phrase from Rime of the Ancient Mariner “upon a painted ocean”. In PoE1, the loading screen art was framed at the borders by 2 mighty trees, and below by broken stone ruins; to me this bespoke the forests and Engwithan ruins of the Dyrwood and Eir Glanfath in which the tale was set. Character development and voice-acting: I will always remember the amazing work done by the narrator in Baldur’s Gate, and the incredible David Warner as Jon Irenicus: For me, he made Irenicus a sympathetic, almost tragic villain. As that series did in so many other ways, this set the standard of what I hope to find in an RPG. I applaud the casting of the PoE narrator: For me, his accent is sufficiently understated for it to work well! For me, games in which there is a preponderance of strongly (southern?) American-accented voice-acting invariably break immersion and lead to me turning off the sound of voices. As the PoE team has indeed done, partly this may be surmounted by having a variety of real-world accented voice actors. I believe that crafting the script of dialogue and narration is an artform, and so is the correct interpretation of these by voice actors. When everything works, the effect should be that of listening to the musical dialogues implicit in a Beethoven symphony or Bach fugue. NPC’s whom I thought particularly well both acted and written in PoE1 and WM included Iovara, Thaos, Kana, Eder, Aloth, Llengarth, Sometimes it was a matter of interpretation with which I disagreed: For example, to me Lady Webb sounded like a sweet grandmother, which I felt did a disservice to her Machiavellian capabilities and gimlet intellect. It was the difference between a Marple-type character played by Geraldine McEwan or Anna Massey, versus one played by Julia McKenzie. Likewise the “snarkiness” of the Devil of Caroc I felt incongruent with both her backstory and the conclusion to her story. Mind you, I was surprised that having achieved her vengeance she was not becalmed by emptiness and loss of life life-purpose. I remain extremely annoyed and frustrated by the reduced party size: A huge variety of party member responses to the environment and plot is one of my chief delights, closely followed by a large number of diverse interactions between party members. In both the BG and NWN series I modded my game to enable the maximum number of NPC’s, and enjoyed imagining scenarios by which (for example) the noble paladin and “evil” drow might surmount their differences and find common cause to assist the player character. Regarding party member interactions: In real life I am unable to have any romantic attachment due to severe health problems. It would just be irresponsible of me. This is a source of permanent deep sorrow. When there is a tastefully implemented, deep romance option in an RPG, it helps me feel a little of that companionship. I don’t mean sex scenes, which I think have been justifiably ridiculed in many instances. Music and cinematographic pacing: Possibly my ears tricked me, but it gladdened my heart to hear themes from shadows of Amn echoed in the PoE1 soundtrack: Thankyou! I thought that the music for Sun-In-Shadow was also some of the most evocative and apt in the game. Overall, the composition does a brilliant job of having unique themes (leit motifs) for each character, game area, and story theme, then weaving them together in counterpoint. My only challenge for the composer is to say: Please, more contrapunctus! The cinematic direction for both the final confrontation with Thaos, and the final confrontation with the Eyeless (WM2) I thought very well directed. Your team managed to incorporate lots of lore/ flashbacks which kept upping the tension and atmosphere, without sacrificing any gameplay or responsiveness. I’ve seen this (sacrifice of dramatic pacing in order to include dramatic content) happen in other games where I really care about the characters involved, and it always breaks my heart. So well done for managing to achieve this without dropping the pace! However, I do wonder if the leadup to a final confrontation could have been better served by a different musical score than the slow, wonderfully atmospheric (“lost grandeur”) “Sun-In-Shadow” theme. Maybe something more in the style of Solusek Ro’s Tower raid (Rob King, Everquest 1), or Apollo’s Palace (Marios Aristopoulos, Apotheon). I am no musician, but broadly these are characterised by a sense of progressively increasing tempo (even using auditory illusion?), the constant repetition of short phrases with variations, and soaring over that a sweeping elegiac theme that provides a sense of destiny impelling the listener forwards. I also thought it a pity that we saw all the dead people but did not understand the meaning until after Thaos was defeated: During that final approach, maybe we could have seen disjoint flashbacks of them being sacrificed? Without the context we learn after defeating Thaos, this could have added to the mystery and the accelerating sense of peril. I am very tolerant of lore and can’t ever get enough. But perhaps this would have been too much lore for some players, or slowed the pace. I don’t know. World Building: For me, the use of phrases in other languages such as “per complancanet” really helps to add a feeling of diverse ethnic groups within the world. Having definitions popup over them during conversation is great, because it maximises the ethnic effect while reducing the concomitant occlusion of meaning (!). The ocean seems very desolate and empty, as do the land masses. There could be MANY more islands, and far more content on each eg Ursula LeGuin’s “Earthsea” Archipelago. Maybe procedural generation could be used to better convey a sense of being surrounded by steaming, claustrophobic jungle? Deadfire being set in the tropics, I do wonder at the apparent absence of coral reefs and atolls. Some truly spectacular real-world places involve underwater caves filled with multicoloured tropical marine life glowing like jewels, or swimming underwater through cave systems (cenote’s). I also wonder at the apparent absence of volcanic island chains, which are such a feature of the Pacific Ocean in our own world. Does Eora possess plate tectonics? Having a magnetic field (hence a convective geodynamo) I would have thought tectonic plates likely. In brief and very simply (I am not a geologist!): (1) Where plates converge, there are likely to be mountain chains (eg Andes) with volcanic island chains in the subduction zone, (2) where plates diverge there are trenches with volcanic activity, and (3) where plates shear, earthquakes occur along faultlines. In the beta, I noted that the arrangement of mountains, plains and forest seemed a little arbitrary. Again, very simply and briefly (I am not a climatologist!): Forests grow in regions of high rainfall, so on the side of mountain ranges that faces the prevailing winds/ weather systems. The mountains block the rain, so on the other side is drier, hence plains. Which begs the question: What are the prevailing weather systems in the Deadfire Archipelago? Although I could be wrong, I suspect that any level design topology could map to one that accounts for (i) prevailing winds and (ii) plate tectonics. It is going in the other direction that might not work. Eoran Theogony: I preface these remarks by quoting from William Blake’s “Marriage of Heaven and Hell” lines 96-101 (http://www.bartleby.com/235/253.html), as to me it seems to summarise what we learnt about the gods of Eora in PoE1, thus serving as point from which to continue. “The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged and numerous senses could perceive. And particularly they studied the Genius of each city and country, placing it under its Mental Deity; Till a System was formed, which some took advantage of, and enslav’d the vulgar by attempting to realise or abstract the Mental Deities from their objects—thus began Priesthood; Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales. And at length they pronounc’d that the Gods had order’d such things. Thus men forgot that All Deities reside in the Human breast.” While I applaud the *contemporary realism* and intellectual depth of the PoE divine pantheon, I do feel nostalgic for simple “good guy” dynamics such as for example that Sir Keldorn had for Torm (Shadows of Amn), or Cadderly had with Deneir (RA Salvatore’s Cleric Quintet). Having the “good” god Eothas behave in a manner which seemed out of character to some of his adherents (including myself), raised the whole issue of deity: worshipper relationships (Steven Erikson addresses this well in his Malazan Chronicles). How much of the power of a deity stems from their adherents, so to what extent are they “slaves” to their worshippers? What happens when a deity refuses to behave according to the expectations of their followers? As quoted by Stephen Donaldson, SP Somtow said something like “Fantasy is the only legitimate means for religious inquiry”. All of which I found very thought-provoking. Personally I find more aesthetically pleasing the ideas set forth by Macros (RE Feist’s “Rage of a Demon King”), whereby humans unknowingly created deities by worship (or “paying attention to”) Platonic Ideals. According to this system some of the power of some deities (but not all) is a direct reflection of how many worshippers they have. As Nakor subsequently expounded in the same book, while the manifestation of an Ideal as a deity may be local to a particular world, the Ideal itself of course may be universal. Within the portfolio of each Eoran deity they are comprehensive and self-consistent, but I have some concerns regarding the constructed pantheon as a whole. The Engwithans may have been “high minded”, but from my perspective I think their choice of Ideals upon which to confer divinity rather arbitrary, with lots of overlaps and gaps between divine portfolios. I suggest a system structurally similar to Aristotelian elements or (for example) MBTI or Enneagram psychological types, might have better “covered all bases”. (I have the same issues with the structure of Tides in Torment: Numenera) In the real world, extreme proponents of both religious and humanist persuasions incline to ranting. I think it crucial that as your team explores ideas, it is important for the story and characters to avoid both bias and polemics- unless to illustrate the problems associated with such. Specifically, I feel that in PoE1 there were occasions when Aloth and Durance each crossed the line into bigotry and bad taste. In real life, *for me* (as a scientist), one point of worshipping a divinity is that they stand outside reality as humans are capable of comprehending or experiencing it. Hence there is never any possible way that we (or the Engwithans) could determine whether god(s) exist. Moreover, if a divinity exists as the animus of a Platonic Ideal, then in their natural state they would be largely incomprehensibly alien to human thought. If humans “create” a god by worshipping such an animus, then any anthropomorphic character of that deity could arise as a result of that relationship. What if some Eoran “gods” such as I have described actually exist in Eora but the Engwithans could not detect them? What if there is some overlap in portfolio between the Engwithan gods and these Animate Ideals? Maybe some blending or merger might occur? Cosmetic things: Personally I emphatically dislike the “smoking pipe” animated icon for something as personal as the “loadscreen waiting”: With apologies to JRRT, Elminster and many others, I find it difficult to dissociate smoking from the (for me) highly emotive topic of cancer. NPC’s smoking is fine; it is just the entirely individual question of where the line gets drawn. Personally I’d prefer an icon suggestive of the seafaring nature of the game- perhaps a sailing ship rocking on rolling waves? World Interaction: Combining the effects of statistics of a player with those of other party members in order to pass statistic checks is a fantastic idea. At this early stage I am not sure if it has been done, but some other ideas include (i) using the maximum value of a statistic across the entire party plus a factor contributed by other party members, and (ii) seeing if any other party members meet a particular attribute trait (eg White that Wends) rather than just the player. These 2 stratagems would further increase the diversity of checks which a player could pass, thus making feel more immersed in the world. It also reduces the need for multiple playthroughs, for which I lack both time and strength. It would be nice if we had an option/ opportunity to negotiate peacefully for the spore-coated grimoire when talking to the Delemgan at Toaku Biwha Trail north of Tikawara. Sometimes when mousing over an item that is compared to something already equipped, the 2 information panels overlap resulting in being unable to read either one. Game dynamics: When sneaking, the red visual indicator of NPC alertness/ detection area is a great addition! In the Task “Plucked Fruit”, I thought it might have been nice if we could convince the tribe of the merits of harvesting seeds from the dried fruit, to ensure there were future harvests. In a similar vein, I was very happy that there was an opportunity to send the lagufaeth hatchlings back home without alienating the villagers! I have never liked the inclusion of firearms or gunpowder in ostensibly fantasy games, and tend to avoid playing those that contain it. In my view it is (historically and technologically) a very short step from including guns to having a completely real-world contemporary technological level. I just have a passionate aversion to realworld firearms, and this spills over into games. There is also the aspect of all the problems that can arise from the exercise of “unearned power”. Torment:ToN dealt with this in what I thought was an effective manner by having weapons similar to firearms be “magical” relics from an advanced civilisation (“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” Arthur C Clarke) Hitting the <tab> key does not highlight some lootable corpses eg sand grubs, which is annoying. The changes in game mechanics and interface from PoE1 to the PoE2 beta have really confused, frustrated and alienated me. For example, the tiny icons of the inventory view with its small icons and boxes makes it difficult to see things. Having the stash always show open on the same screen contributes to the display being very crowded and making it difficult to find what I am looking for. Not showing the inventories of all party members at a glance (which PoE1 did), makes it hard to see what different companions have on hand. Likewise, I find it very frustrating to have equipped weapons hiding elsewhere on the screen and not in the same area as the armour equipped. A difference from PoE I: I feel very confused that my wizard’s grimoire has spells in it which I have yet to learn, and very frustrated that I cannot learn new spells from the grimoire of the NPC wizard in my party. I also find it really confusing the change from crushing/ piercing/ slashing etc weapon types and damage resistances in PoE 1: They made combat a lot more realistic and thought-provoking. One positive thing that has been introduced is the ability to “copy” a currently wielded weapon or shield from one slot to another: Thankyou! In summary: I STRONGLY prefer the PoE1 design! If it is not broken, please don’t try to fix it: Energy could have been better spent on things which would benefit more. Further suggestions: One of the most fun aspects of Shadows of Amn for me was the sophisticated mage vs mage combat spells: Although PoE does have some scope for this, the number of protective spells and counterspells remains relatively small. It would be great fun if this were expanded, and spells overall more systematically organised. An aspect of magecraft included in some other games which is good fun is things such as casting grease, then setting it on fire, alternating ice/ flame to shatter stone, ice followed by flame to create steam, which lightning can then electrify, and so on. Another aspect of Shadows of Amn I recall with nostalgia is the ability to set multiple traps prior to triggering (for example) a Demi-liche spawn."

Hey everyone, I updated the original post of this thread to include more information and fixed some formatting issues. I got your back - SKing

Happy Holidays!!! Obsidian will be CLOSED starting tonight 12/22, returning 1/2 morning. I'll be popping in on the forums here and there but our coverage will be very light. We apologize for patching and running, but figured it was better to give it sooner rather than later. Hopefully all you merrymaking gamers have a great holiday, - SKing

Still on the drawing board.

All versions are live as of this morning, Backer Beta Builds where and when? Mac: Steam and GoG are live now Win: Steam and GoG are live now Linux: Steam and GoG are live now I got your backs - SKing

Hey you bunch of affable gamers, Our update is now live! To gain access to the Backer Beta, visit this (Forum Link) for step by step instructions. This is a Beta and will most definitely contain a few issues. Please report any issues you find here (Forum Link). Backer Beta Builds where and when? Mac: Steam and GoG are live now Win: Steam and GoG are live now Linux: Steam and GoG are live now We have some pretty hefty patch notes for you. Below you will find; New Content, System Changes, Bug Fixes, and Known Issues. NEW CONTENT Prepatch (Build 4) saves are not compatible and will not be available in the Save/Load Menu with this patch (Build 21). We are still ironing out some save/load issues on our end and don't want you all to run into unnecessary issues. A new uncharted Island - A new island has been added to the world map. Custom Party AI - Our complete AI system will be available. This system still has some rough edges but should be functional. Hit it and tell us what you think. Mac/Linux versions both on GoG and Steam - These builds are very 'fresh' with many unexplored pieces. We would love some feedback/bugs on these. Walk Toggle - The long awaited walk toggle has been added. RP your hearts out J SYSTEM CHANGES We listened closely to all of your feedback over the past month, and are rolling out some changes to improve gameplay. Injuries: Updated Injuries so that only some Injury types will reduce Max Health. When they do, they'll reduce it by 15%, rather than 25%. Players will still die when gaining their 4th Injury, even if none of the Injuries they have reduce MaxHealth. Here are the Injuries that affect MaxHealth: Fatigued Frail Major Injury Critical Injury Maimed Severe Wound Here are the Injuries that don't: Acute Rash Bruised Ribs Concussion Frostbite Burned Smashed Hands Sprained Wrist Swollen Eye System Shock Twisted Ankle Wrenched Knee Wrenched Shoulder Interrupt: Modified a couple of abilities whose primary purpose is to interrupt targets, so that they will Interrupt on Graze or better, rather than Hit or better. This affects the following abilities: Fighter: Knockdown and Mule Kick Monk: Force of Anguish, Wave of Force, and Skyward Kick Ranger: Concussive Shot and Concussive Tranquilizer Rogue: Sap and Perplexing Sap Other interrupt abilities `either always hit, or applied an Affliction and so already got a benefit for a Graze. They still require the character to have Grazes from another source (Fighter Confident Aim, Aware Inspiration, etc.) Movement: Reducing movement speeds to 85% of their previous amount. Attributes: In Pillars 1 and Deadfire (now), the Might and Resolve attributes affect the following: Might - All Damage, All Healing, Fortitude Defense Resolve - Concentration (Pillars 1 only), Deflection Defense, Will Defense Players have noted the following over the past few years: If you're a caster, there's often not much reason to invest in Resolve (especially in Deadfire). From a *~ roleplaying ~* perspective, it feels weird to have muscley wizards casting high damage fireballs because they can bench 350 lbs. So we are making these changes for the next Backer Beta build: Strength - All Weapon Damage, Fortitude Defense Resolve - All Healing, All Spell Damage, Deflection Defense, Will Defense For ease of use, "Weapon Damage" means anything that's an equipped weapon, from a sword to a bow to a gun to Kalakoth's Minor Blights. This also means there's a benefit to making a high-Strength wizard (i.e., being a psycho melee "gish" wizard). Spells: Slow cast spells will use the Fast (2s base) recovery time instead of Average (3s base). The Very Slow cast spells (typically summons) will now use the Very Fast (1s base) recovery time. Penetration: Modified the Penetration system slightly, along with how Penetration displays in the mouse-over tooltip in combat. When your Penetration is below the target's Armor, there is now a gradual reduction in damage. The current values are (and may be tweaked as we play with them a bit): -1 Pen = 75% Damage -2 Pen = 50% Damage -3 or more Pen = 25% Damage It's still 100% damage up until you are at double Pen, and then 130% damage from there. Along with this change, Penetration will now ONLY display on the combat tooltip when you are either BELOW Pen, or you don't yet know the target's Armor value for the damage type you'll deal. Attack Speed: Updated the attack speed of most 1H weapons to use an Average (3s) recovery time, instead of Fast (previously 1s). Fast recovery times are now 2s, rather than 1s. The overall result of these changes is that combat will have a slower pace as recovery times for 1H weapons is increased. Here are the 1H weapons that will have a Fast (2s) recovery time. All other 1H weapons are Average recovery: Stiletto Hatchet Dagger Rapier Club Flail Monk Fists As part of this change, we also looked at the overall damage ranges of weapons, with the goal of making 2H weapons a viable choice compared to 1H weapons. Recovery: Base recovery time for a Slow recovery attack is now 4s, instead of 5s. Very slow is now 7s instead of 8s. More importantly, we updated the recovery penalty from armor, as follows: 20%: Light Armor (Leather, Hide, Padded) 35%: Medium Armor (Scale, Breastplate, Mail) 55%: Heavy Armor (Brigandine, Plate) Graze: All attacks can inherently Graze. We updated the Aware Inspiration to grant 50% Graze to Hit conversion, and fighter Confident Aim also grants 50% Graze to Hit (meaning Fighters who have both will hit a lot more). Grazing will reduce damage and status effect / affliction duration by 50%. We might consider having graze downgrade Tier 3 & Tier 2 afflictions, like an inherent Resistance. Rogue: Rogue Escape ability. It now costs 1 Guile to use (previously it was 2). It is no longer removed when you choose Shadow Step/Shadowing Beyond, but it is a requirement in order to gain either of those abilities.Ranger: Ranger abilities Wounding Shot, Accurate Wounding Shot, Hobbling Shot, Concussive Shot, Concussive Tranquilizer, and Stunning Shots will now work with melee weapon attacks.Priest: Priests will now receive an automatic spell when they reach every new Power Level. For a single-class Priest, that's at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, and 19. Updated Priests so that they no longer lose access to spells based on type. IE: Eothas Priests no longer lose access to Protection spells. Fighter: Mule Kick is now a standalone ability, not a Knock Down upgrade. It requires Knock Down to learn, but doesn't replace it. It now does bonus damage and will Disorient the target, and will cost 3 points to use.Ranger: Wounding Shot - Since Wounding Shot and its upgrades were reduced to 1 point, tuned down the bonus Raw damage a bit. Marked Prey - As with Sworn Enemy, Marked Prey will now work correctly w/ ranged & AoE attacks. Paladin: Paladin Orders like Priests, players were required to pick a Paladin Order during character creation. We've removed the drawbacks from picking the various Orders. Lay on Hands -Greater Lay on Hands and Hands of Light are no longer upgrades to Lay on Hands. They require Lay on Hands, but do not replace it. Their effects remain the same. Sworn Enemy - has been updated to work correctly with ranged & AoE attacks BUG FIXES Thanks to all you wonderful gamers providing tons of feedback/bugs. We spent this past month addressing as many of it as we could; here are some of the highlights. General Issues: (FIXED) Mild to severe drop in frame rate on first load. We are still in the process of optimizing our game. (FIXED) Some machines may crash on a black screen on first 'New Game' (FIXED) A few different creatures (Imp, Beetle, etc..) are missing audio (FIXED) Some NPCs will have abilities that activate after each transition (FIXED) Party will spawn halfway below the ground after destroying the Adra Pillar in Poko Kohara Class Specific: (FIXED) Chanter phrase count is not updating after Save/Load (FIXED) Multiclass Barbarian/Priest (Shaman) lose passives (FIXED) Wizard/Druid/Priest 'aggressive' AI preset will mainly auto attack (FIXED) Mercenary Wizard is currently listed as a dwarf and gains 'Hale and Hardy' but visually is a Human UI: (FIXED) Some menus are cut off in certain resolutions (FIXED) All tooltips regarding Action Speed, Recovery Time, and Reload Time are incorrect (Don't trust them) (FIXED) HUD elements may flicker/phase out of existence after a save/load cycle (FIXED) Adra Pillar in Poko Kohara disappears after Save/Load (FIXED) Player character portrait doesn't fill red to show damage after Save/Load (FIXED) Loading Error that kicks to the Main Menu transitioning after Save/Load Spells and Abilities: (FIXED) Spell Levels in Ability Trees and Grimoires do not match (FIXED) Bull's Will Passive can be obtained twice for Multiclass Players Miscellaneous: (FIXED) Off screen Character Position Portraits all display the 5th slot party member (FIXED) Animation controller issue with Blights and Spores. If you Knock Down/Up either of these enemies they will be put into a bad state and combat will not end. (FIXED) Players can obtain infinite money or debt by buying hammer and chisels from Vektor Combat: (FIXED) Mule Kick makes enemies untargettable and stuck in combat (FIXED) Enemies sometimes duplicate on save/load (FIXED) Weapon Recovery speeds are inconsistent (FIXED) Skeleton Sorcerers attack themselves in Poko Kohara (FIXED) Weapon Focus Barbarian ability is combat only (Currently being worked on) (FIXED) Kith (humanoid) enemies will sometimes attack themselves KNOWN ISSUES IN THE CURRENT BACKER BETA These issues are still a priority for us, but there is only so much time in a day and we didn't want to keep you all waiting any longer. All Platforms: Mercenary Priest level up summary has much larger text than other characters Items can be duplicated in rest menu 'Broodmother's Fury' Loading an autosave before starting the quest will block the quest from turn in at end Some machines may crash when quitting to the Main Menu from within the game The Game doesn't boot in native resolution after installation Ranger 'Ghostheart' summoned spirit companions will sometimes blend into the background Chanter will not have audio for their abilities (Chants or invocations) Linux: Loading a save outside of Tikawara and returning to Tikawara will open Character Creation Encounter between Ravine and Tikawara reappears New Game takes forever to launch character creation Mac: Crash when loading an encounter autosave from a different scene New Game takes forever to launch character creation

Hey you bunch of faithful gamers, We decided to slip one more patch in! The patch will be available on the Beta Branch of Steam for a few days. Please jump in and let us know what you think. The patch will go live soon after that. Patch contains; - Fixed an issue with the Company Captain's Cap confusing party members when they cast a buff/heal spell. - Realized we went a little overboard on the Deadfire Uniforms. We knocked the defenses they granted from +20 to +9. - Added optional analytics. This is just simple data collection (where parties wipe, which classes players choose, etc....). A pop up will trigger as soon as you launch the game after patching, asking 'would you like to enable analytics.' We'd love it if everyone did, but feel free to just click 'no' and forget it ever happened. So, how do I get started? It's actually pretty easy. Completely quit out of the Steam client. Restart the Steam client and navigate to the Library tab. Right-click on the Pillars of Eternity entry and click on Properties. ​ Navigate to the Betas tab in the Properties menu. Enter in the code "BETAPASSWORD" (remove quotes) and click on the Check Code button. Click on the dropdown list and select the "beta" branch. Once selected, close out of the Properties menu. You should notice that your Pillars of Eternity game will now have "[beta]" after it. This means that your game is in the beta branch. Steam should queue an update for this branch. You can now play the new beta branch of the game. If you would like to switch your branch back to normal follow steps 3 and 4 to get back to the Beta tab in the Properties menu, then choose "NONE" as your branch. This should revert you back to the release version of the game. Thank you to all of the folks that decide to play the patch beta and help report issues. Your help is invaluable and we really appreciate your dedication.

Hey everyone, We can't give an exact date for future updates or spoil their content. But there are a few planned and they will be coming soon. Hang in there -Sking

Hey you bunch of elevated gamers, First, I am loving these breakdowns. I always like seeing 'smarter' people than myself dive into our systems. I wanted to ask you if you have taken into account that Perception helps all attacks, while Might only helps damage attacks. It feels correct that Might should boost DPS more than Perception just because Perception also effects CC spells that do not do damage. Where as Might does nothing to help CC attacks. You seem to have a better grasp on the number than myself. I only ask because I didn't see you point to it in any of your breakdowns. I got your backs -SKing

Hey you bunch of inquisitive gamers, The current design for pistol/sword attacks; (Both situations should get the 20% buff from dual weapon stance) While in Melee - Characters will only use the Sword While at Range - Characters will stay at range and only shoot This of course can/may change. Give it some love, let us know how it feels. Getting the 'right' feel on this one is definitely on our mind and we are looking for any tweaks we can make. I got your backs -SKing