Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting

[Infinitron]

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/134225-patch-123-notes/

Hey everyone,

A new patch is now available! This update includes important fixes, so be sure to update your game when you see it.

If you are encountering any problems, please continue to let us know at support.obsidian.net.

Thanks for playing, and we appreciate your support!

— The Avowed Team

Crashes & Major Issues​

• Resolved a crash related to GameThread timing out.
• The playerwill no longer crash after pressing ESC upon climbing a ladder.
• The player will no longer crash when playing on PC with an Xbox Account is signed in and internet connection is lost.
• The player will no longer experience a rare crash related to rendering.

Quests & Area Design

• Yatzli now correctly advances "A Path to the Garden" quest even if "One Last Drink" was completed before meeting Temerti & Yatzli in Thirdborn.
• Ofryc will now appear as intended in Paradis near the end of the quest "Dawntreader".
• "Shadows of the Past" quest now progresses correctly if the player enters Naku Kubel immediately after it becomes accessible.
• Sanza now correctly rewards the player when turning in the first map to him.
• Wilfrith's Map is now removed from the player's inventory when giving it to Sanza.
• A "Quest Available" icon is no longer present on the map for a quest giver in Shatterscarp if they have been killed.
• A conversation with Yatzli during the quest "The Siege of Paradis" will no longer drop earlier than intended.
• A dream conversation in Dawnshore no longer ends earlier than intended.
• Corrected some conditionals that were preventing certain end slides from playing.
• The quest marker for the quest “Precious Light” appears where intended if Adelgund was spoken before the quest starts.
• Amadio in Emerald Stair no longer reacts as if the xaurips have been killed if they've been damaged by an elemental interaction.
• Sargamis' dialogue after choosing to sacrifice himself is no longer cut off by himself.
• Some dreamthralls outside of Naku Kubel will no longer drop dead out of nowhere.
• Some xaurips in the Deadfall Highlands in Shatterscarp will no longer follow the player outside of the intended area.
• Barrier collision is now correctly removed after the conversation in front of Naku Kubel in Shatterscarp and fast travelling to Party Camp.
• The encounter for Belderreno's bounty now spawns more reliably.
• The player can no longer skip talking to Darle after burning the nests as part of the quest "Fires in the Mine".
• The player can no longer pick up 4 of the same Great Sword outside of Paradis.
• The player can now give the illicit goods to Daiko under certain conditions as part of the quest "The Wasteland Courier".
• The player can now properly exit the conversation with Forgemaster Dela in Solace Keep if they are unsure which weapon they want to upgrade.
• The player can no longer use parkour on the rocks to bypass part of the quest "Boundaries of Antiquity".
• The Pyromancer in Dawnshore no longer clips into and out of the ground.
• The quest "Message From Afar" will complete properly if the player exited The Strangleroot in an unintended way.
• There is now a proper quest marker for the quest "Mapping the Living Lands: Galawain's Tusks".
  
  

Systems, Gameplay, and Balance Updates

• Corrected the requirements for the achievement “The Outer Worlds.”
• Arcane Veil balance adjustments: Damage Reduction: 50% -> 25%, Cooldown: 10 seconds -> 15 seconds
• Characters are no longer affected by electrified water when standing above it, jumping over it, or on an ice platform.
• Companions will help the player in combat more reliably.
• Companions will no longer rarelydisappear after skipping a cutscene.
• Corrected loot drops related to upgrade materials.
• Encounters that have waves of enemies will now spawn more reliably.
• Errant teleports of NPCs to under the map in rare situations will no longer occur.
• Improved water-borne electrical damage behavior.
• Melee weapons (besides one-handed sword) will now properly trigger camera shakes when hitting an enemy.
• New enemies spawned during active combat now detect the player correctly.
• Steel Garotte guard's weapon no longer enlarges when receiving damage prior to the conversation.
• The player camera will no longer lurch when opening a small lockbox.
• The player will no longer levitate briefly after opening a sarcophagus.
• The player will no longer momentarily uncrouch when opening a small lockbox.
• The player will no longer be unable to move after loading a save in which the ability Arcane Veil was active.
• The player will no longer get stuck aiming down sights after a cutscene occurs.
  

Audio Improvements

• Added volumes around Emerald Stair to adjust music mix based on story moments, choices, and vistas.
• Added volumes around Galawain's Tusks to adjust music mix based on story moments and vistas.
• Added volumes around Shatterscarp to adjust music mix based on story moments and vistas.
• Added volumes around The Garden to adjust music mix based on story moments and vistas.
• Arduous Delay of Motion ability now has audio effect upon enemy impact.
• Using Barbaric Shout will always make the player shout when using the ability.
  

Visual & Art Fixes

• Adjusted camera framing in conversation before dispelling the barrier to Naku Kubel.
• Adjusted camera framing in conversation with gossiping Fiorian Citizens in Emerald Stair.
• Adjusted camera framing in conversations during the quest "The Siege of Paradis".
• Adjusted camera framing in conversations in Naku Kubel.
• Adjusted camera framing in conversation with Cinzia in Thirdborn.
• Improved the appearance of fog in the opening area of The Garden.
• Lighting has been adjusted near the Shrine to Skaen in Emerald Stair.
• NPCs now correctly look at the player rather than at the camera during the debate with Giatta, Vidarro, and Quillici in Fior mes Iverno.
• Removed graphical artifacts from dreamscourge affect in Emerald Stair near the Farmer's Market.
  
  

User Interface (UI) & Controls

• "Insufficient funds" and strikethrough text in store screens will no longer appear incorrectly under certain conditions
• When saving fails, a more descriptive error message appears.
• After cloud syncing when logging in through the main menu, if any save syncs fail it will now show a dialog with a list of the failed save syncs."
• Added a Steam and Xbox icon to the Main Menu where the player's currently logged in account is displayed.
• Adjusted behavior of directional damage indicators to not display when taking damage over time.
• Adjusted damage numbers to show when they were previously failing to appear.
• Clarified text for Cross Save pop-ups.
• Loot windows will now show the correct value of stacked coins.
• Settings now apply the saved preset layout for controllers after the game restarts.
• Upon finishing crafting the maximum amount of an item, focus will be returned to that item's recipe entry, or the 1st item in the recipe list if the crafted item isn't visible anymore.
• Values in the inventory are now hidden for items that cannot be sold once acquired (quest items that must be purchased and upgrade materials).

Misc.

• Corrections were made to the Credits
• Tutorials in French no longer have images with English text.

 

[Child of Malkav]

I bet Tim Cain consulted on this project, that would explain a lot.

From his videos I got the impression he's a simulation and player agency designer so I don't think he had anything to do with this game.

 

[SayMyName]

Planescape Torment has no physics and is older than Ultima Underworld.

This just in: 1999 came before 1992.

Meant to say newer, which is clear from the wording and highlighting how Torment is missing physics.
Your mockery of my lapsus only shows you have low IQ pal

 

[JarlFrank]

Mass Effect, a legendary RPG beloved by most players.

From the moment it was announced, the Codex has been shitting on it as mega-casualized slop for the console audience. Basically CYOA with cover shooter elements. I started playing through the Legendary Edition last year, and it's extremely rough to get through due to the high concentration of cutscenes. Mass Effect has been decline from the start, and the Codex has been calling it out for it from the start.

"muh the FADE"

The Fade is actually the least offensive part of Dragon Age.
The Deep Roads are worse. There are maybe 3 good encounters in that area, and 300 copypasted darkspawn trash mobs.
The real problem of Dragon Age is that it has hundreds of trash mobs that are completely copypasted. They aren't easy enough to autopilot, nor hard enough to be a challenge. They're not fun to play through, just a waste of time - especially since you have to do the exact same copypasted encounters hundreds of times. And there's no long term resource management consequences for it, because you will regenerate health and mana at the end of each battle. Older RPGs, particularly dungeon crawlers, have a lot of mob encounters to drain you of resources as you make your way to the deeper levels. Not so here. The trash mobs serve no purpose beyond wasting your time.

You would realize this if you had any taste whatsoever.

I wonder why you have such shit taste in RPGs... oh, nevermind

 

[ropetight]

But Avowed is failing with normies too - having 10k concurrent player week after release in 2025 is not good enough for the game with billboards on the Times Square.

The gamepass effect is a big factor here.

Most single-player xbox games do similar numbers, Starfield being the big edge case because Bethesda had already built up a huge audience who wanted to own and not rent it. Who knows what MS's expectations are? We'll find out when Obsidian either gets layoffs or the announcement of Avowed 2.

Introducing the number of the people playing it over GamePass, Battle.Net or PS as unknowns in what we know (Steam numbers) is just a deflection.
Numbers on those platforms could be good or shit as well, oh we will never know.

If we continue to introduce new variables as needed to preserve shitty inbetween attitude, we can't say anything really.
Microsoft could close them tomorrow because they need to reduce taxes or to extract couple of good devs and join them into Bethesda or whatever.
So, even closing of Obsidian proves nothing, because nothing ever does.

And that cute "we can't compare it with Starfield, it is edge case or anomaly" - yes, we can.
Even if it had 10 times less budget, marketing and media presence (and it had more), why does it have 1/20 of Starfield's players?

Those "Obsidian fanatics" you mentioned before?
It looks like you highly overestimated their numbers, similar to BioWare and DA fans or Disney and Modern Audience.
Maybe there was significant number of those 10 years ago, but it evaporated after series of meh games they made.

Truth is Obisidan looked like they don't know what they are doing and made clusterfuck of errors:

• betting all on the "little IP that could", but in reality it never could
• devs running their mouth angered "chuds" because Feargus and his Cali-bubble buddies let them
• play dead tactic for months to simmer down controversy cost them valuable time to build hype (if this was ever possible with product like this)
• silently adding features like optional pronouns to appease chuds cooled wokers and troons support; so not even they are defending it
• not doing what i.e. Warhorse did and let "influencers" play their game month before to generate any kind of buzz (because game was in shit state)
• hoping that MSM shilling will generate sales in 2025

Avowed is mediocre at best, and these mistakes would kill much better game than it.

 

[markec]

 

[Falksi]

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Not long finished up the Pirate in Hawaii demo and it was a fucking blast. Deserves much better numbers than that, I'll be grabbing it next weekend if I get some free play-time.

 

[SayMyName]

From the moment it was announced, the Codex has been shitting on it as mega-casualized slop for the console audience. Mass Effect has been decline from the start, and the Codex has been calling it out for it from the start.

Top 70 RPGs according to Codex

I started playing through the Legendary Edition last year, and it's extremely rough to get through due to the high concentration of cutscenes.

Let me guess, next you'll parrot how the dialogue wheel is bad and having few options (even though it's usually exaggerated and wrong how the Mass Effect wheel is criticized for limiting dialogues since it would regularly fill with 5 or 6 options and the dialogues in general are more cinematic and flow through more steps)

You would realize this if you had any taste whatsoever.

I'm more than knowledgeable of game design, nor I am a zoomer. I am aware that Dragon Age Origins has a problem with encounters, but that's par the course of many games in the genre and I like the game in spite of its flaws.
You are complaining Origins has too much filler encounters and Mass Effect too little.

 

[Roguey]

Microsoft could close them tomorrow because they need to reduce taxes or to extract couple of good devs and join them into Bethesda or whatever.
So, even closing of Obsidian proves nothing, because nothing ever does.

"Microsoft would close Obsidian for any reason whatsoever, ergo they would also keep giving them money regardless of failure."

Doesn't really make any sense considering how they've been running things so far. Show me an example of a financially failing game studio that MS kept propping up, give me actual numbers to back it up, not your best guesses.

 

[JarlFrank]

Let me guess, next you'll parrot how the dialogue wheel is bad and having few options (even though it's usually exaggerated and wrong how the Mass Effect wheel is criticized for limiting dialogues since it would regularly fill with 5 or 6 options and the dialogues in general are more cinematic and flow through more steps)

No, I don't mind the dialog wheel, but the way the game throws so many cutscenes at you (especially at the beginning, it takes ages before you actually get to PLAY) is objectively shit. RPGs shouldn't have cutscenes.

You are complaining Origins has too much filler encounters and Mass Effect too little.

Where did I complain about Mass Effect's encounters? I never mentioned its encounter design at all because I'm not far enough into the game yet to rate it.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

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Damn, those are some low number from yakuza. I guess it's more popular on console.

 

[markec]

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Damn, those are some low number from yakuza. I guess it's more popular on console.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii being a weird spin-off seems to be reflected by lower numbers.

 

[Modron]

Top 70 RPGs according to Codex

Go back to the older top rpg list before all the newfags started casualing it up.

 

[SayMyName]

Let me guess, next you'll parrot how the dialogue wheel is bad and having few options (even though it's usually exaggerated and wrong how the Mass Effect wheel is criticized for limiting dialogues since it would regularly fill with 5 or 6 options and the dialogues in general are more cinematic and flow through more steps)

No, I don't mind the dialog wheel, but the way the game throws so many cutscenes at you (especially at the beginning, it takes ages before you actually get to PLAY) is objectively shit. RPGs shouldn't have cutscenes.

You are complaining Origins has too much filler encounters and Mass Effect too little.

Where did I complain about Mass Effect's encounters? I never mentioned its encounter design at all because I'm not far enough into the game yet to rate it.

fair enough, I misinterpreted your post

Top 70 RPGs according to Codex

Go back to the older top rpg list before all the newfags started casualing it up.

https://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9453
Still there
"It's casual because it has romance and cover shooting". That's fucking retarded but whatever

 

[ropetight]

Microsoft could close them tomorrow because they need to reduce taxes or to extract couple of good devs and join them into Bethesda or whatever.
So, even closing of Obsidian proves nothing, because nothing ever does.

"Microsoft would close Obsidian for any reason whatsoever, ergo they would also keep giving them money regardless of failure."

Doesn't really make any sense considering how they've been running things so far. Show me an example of a financially failing game studio that MS kept propping up, give me actual numbers to back it up, not your best guesses.

Trying to reverse what I said and demanding from me to defend your strawman pulled from the heap with facts and numbers?
I see.


Microsoft closed studios that were decently succesful (Tango), they could close Obsidian if they are inclined to despite their success.
So, closing of the Obsidian will not prove Avowed was unsuccessful, if we apply your approach of moving goalposts with introducing unknowns.

 

[normie]

Microsoft should definitely fire Carrie Patel
not for Avowed, but for marrying a jeet

 

[Roguey]

Trying to reverse what I said and demanding from me to defend your strawman pulled from the heap with facts and numbers?
I see.


Microsoft closed studios that were decently succesfull (Tango), they could close Obisdian if they are inclined to despite their success.
So, closing of the Obsidian will not prove Avowed was unsuccessful, if we apply your approach of moving goalposts with introducing unknowns.

Hi-Fi Rush had critical acclaim and made money, but it wasn't successful enough by Microsoft's internal metrics, ergo it was not successful. They could do the same to Obsidian. If you're not successful enough, you're not successful.

 

[Sòren]

Also you could eliminate all of those complains with simply trick of disabling the player from using weapons and magic inside a settlement. This could be done easily and could be done to fit both the lore and narrative. Not doing so shows how lazy they were and that they have no excuse for that laziness.

to refer to this laziness look at this conversation:



big baddy enters the room, looking at you, threateningly - next second, she stands besides the NPC you were talking to, using the same awkward animations, shoulder shrugging, hand movements, any other NPC applies. every single conversation in this game involving more than one conversation partner happens this way. they didn't even figure out how to appropriately switch the camera so you can look at each one individually, so each one must stand in this stupid circle around you.

i don't think there is any excuse for that. and even less for this dialogue.

 

[Roguey]

Oh hey it's Cope time (the cope is yours, not theirs) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-02-21/new-xbox-game-avowed-took-six-years-two-reboots?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc0MDE2MDg3MiwiZXhwIjoxNzQwNzY1NjcyLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTUzFPT0xUMVVNMFcwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCMUVBQkI5NjQ2QUM0REZFQTJBRkI4MjI1MzgyQTJFQSJ9.FhUrXseBBb83k69Ovuo9PgY3sOuBdW-owuWeanAYc5o&leadSource=uverify wall

Later that year, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox purchased Obsidian. The new owners announced the game in the summer of 2020. But despite a glossy teaser trailer, Avowed was floundering. The development team had gone through two different vertical slices — chunks of the game designed to demonstrate how it would all function — and cut the multiplayer component. Even so, it was still failing to coalesce. By January, the studio had decided to replace the project’s leadership team and reboot the game.


This came as a shock to the Avowed team, which consisted of 80 people who were preparing to enter production. Now they would have to develop a third vertical slice and essentially start over from scratch.

“Normally if you’re stepping back and reevaluating your creative direction, putting together a new vertical slice and revised production plans, you would do that with a very small team,” Patel said. “We did not have a very small team at that point.”

In the weeks and months that followed, Patel had to simultaneously figure out a new vision for the game, refill key leadership positions and ensure that dozens of writers, designers, programmers and artists had work to do as Avowed found its footing. It was like “building the tracks while the train is moving forward,” Patel said.

“A lot of lessons we learned as we were building this game, ideally we would’ve learned on a small scale with a true preproduction,” she added.

Under Patel, the game made two major pivots. One was to double down on the story and lore from the Pillars of Eternity franchise, which Obsidian had been incubating for more than a decade. The other was to replace the open world with “open zones,” like the company’s 2019 hit The Outer Worlds, which would allow the development team to create distinct, dense spaces.

They’d have to sacrifice the ambitions of building a Skyrim-style map where players could walk for hours and still not see everything. But for both technological and logistical reasons, that was proving to be an impossible quest.

Faced with the pressure of delivering on one of Obsidian’s biggest bets, Patel spent a lot of time getting to know unfamiliar disciplines, like engineering, while making tough calls about what to prioritize.

But ultimately it was worth the wait. Players have raved about the game, and the company said it is happy with sales so far.

Obsidian isn’t saying what’s next for the team, but Patel said she wants to keep directing games. The idea of something new is appealing, she said, but it seems more likely she’ll be building on Avowed’s foundation for expansions or sequels.

“Now that we’ve built this wonderful world, and also built this team strength and muscle memory around the content and gameplay in this world, I’d love to see us do more with it,” she said.

Here’s what I love about Avowed: it doesn’t waste your time. It’s a focused role-playing game that knows exactly what it wants to do. The quests are elaborate and compelling — especially the side quests, which are almost always full of interesting choices — and often have consequences that can ripple throughout the story. The combat is crunchy and flexible, letting you swap between melee, magic and blasting guns or arrows at your leisure. Most impressive is the exploration. Around every corner is a rooftop to climb, a mine to explore or a dwarven ruin to blow up. It’s a joy to play, and I highly recommend it.

I had actually heard rumblings a few months ago that MS was actually very optimistic about Avowed and excited to get pre-production on Avowed 2 started ASAP, looks like that's happening. Stay mad.

 

[Abu Antar]

Staying super mad!!

17,490 all-time peak 2 days ago

 

[flyingjohn]

Bioware was happy with veilguard sales as well.Didn't turn out so well for them.The important thing to look for is how much of Obsidian remains after Microsoft looks at the numbers in a month or two.

 

[Ryzer]

Roguey, I hope Josh pays your hard time shilling for this trash.

 

[ropetight]

Trying to reverse what I said and demanding from me to defend your strawman pulled from the heap with facts and numbers?
I see.


Microsoft closed studios that were decently succesfull (Tango), they could close Obisdian if they are inclined to despite their success.
So, closing of the Obsidian will not prove Avowed was unsuccessful, if we apply your approach of moving goalposts with introducing unknowns.

Hi-Fi Rush had critical acclaim and made money, but it wasn't successful enough by Microsoft's internal metrics, ergo it was not successful. They could do the same to Obsidian. If you're not successful enough, you're not successful.

Why Microsoft closed Tango?
They just did, and we don't know really.

Maybe they didn't fit in MS dumb strategy that aimed to monopolize gaming market with acquisitions.
Maybe Microsoft didn't know how to try to turn Tango's kind of AA studio into their cherished AAA heavyweight and they didn't want to bother with small fries.
Maybe they just trimmed the fat - Satya told them to cut half a billion of expenses and they did.

Microsoft's internal metrics you mentioned could be based on anything; could be that all that is not Minecraft is suitable target for slice&dice.
If that is the case, even Bethesda is not successful enough.

 

[Roguey]

Bioware was happy with veilguard sales as well.Didn't turn out so well for them.The important thing to look for is how much of Obsidian remains after Microsoft looks at the numbers in a month or two.

You're mistaken. Busche was completely evasive about it:

How has the commercial response to the game been? I've seen stories about sales and they seem mixed - inconclusive. The game seems to be doing okay but struggling to keep pace with Inquisition before it. Has it been a success from your point of view - how do you measure that?


Busche: There's three axes we can measure this by: what the team was able to do and put together - the pride that they can take in that; every game that is made, especially in the triple-A space where you're talking hundreds of developers, timelines, is a miracle. That they executed at quality: internally we consider that a success.


We're very happy with the critical reception to the game. It's not common to have these challenging development cycles and have a team turn around and receive the critical reception that it did. In fact, in a lot of ways, that is the harder path to take. So yeah, we're quite proud of the critical reception.


Unfortunately on the sales side, that's not something we can really discuss, but of course as we know with Inquisition, that was a long burn to get to those total sales numbers.

Roguey, I hope Josh pays your hard time shilling for this trash.

I'm not shilling anything. I was just smarter to keep an open mind rather than making any kind of pronouncements based on incomplete data.

 

[Wasteland]

Feargus: We tried to make Skryim but just couldn't do it, so we cancelled that version and rebooted it as a something with a smaller scope.
You: So you're making Skyrim, right?

You: Obsidian tried to do what Bethesda did 14 years ago and failed so miserably that the comparison should never be brought up. BTW, that failure is positioned as a AAA product with a $70 price tag.

Me: This is supposed to be a ... sales' pitch? A defense of Obsidian? What in God's name is your point?