Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire + DLC Thread - now with turn-based combat!

[TT1]

https://eternity.obsidian.net




https://af.gog.com/game/pillars_of_eternity_2_game?as=1649904300
https://af.gog.com/game/pillars_of_eternity_ii_deadfire_season_pass?as=1649904300

Spoiler

Stream is live

 

[Infinitron]

It's live for real now.

 

[Infinitron]

Beast of Winter mini-trailer! Coming August 2nd.

 

[santino27]

Pillars of Eternity II is already a brave sequel - it pulls the series away from its nostalgic roots in the temperate woodland of Baldur’s Gate, and replants it in the Southern-Pacific-style island chains of the Deadfire Archipelago. That displacement had a knock-on effect on the rest of the game, which reimagined the isometric RPG as a swashbuckling adventure.

Beast of Winter, the first of three planned paid DLC packs for Deadfire, flips the formula once again. The idyllic, Polynesian white sand and blue seas have been covered by snow and ice. A new vein of dark comedy has opened up in the writing. And you, the heroic Watcher, are being celebrated once again - but this time by some pretty unpalatable types.

We consider the original Pillars of Eternity to be one of the best RPGs on PC.

“One of the real rewarding things about working on DLC is that the groundwork is done,” Beast of Winter narrative designer Alex Scokel tells us. “We don’t have to worry about making sure that every weapon has an animation associated with it - we can just make new stuff.

“In DLC we’re able to stretch those legs a little.”



You’re under the spyglass

Beast of Winter begins with a letter. You are cordially invited to an island at the very bottom of the map made home by the worshippers of Rymrgand. Rymrgand, the beast of the DLC’s title, is the god of collapse: famine, plague, and disaster. The locals call you Duskspeaker - they’ve seen the way death follows in your wake, and they’re really into it.

“The people there throw a feast in your honour,” Scokel says. “Because they respect the way that you go about messing things up.”

When asked whether Beast of Winter’s story is commentary on the player as a destructive force in the Archipelago, Scokel phrases it another way.

“There’s certainly a recognition of the destructive nature of a protagonist in an RPG,” he says. “The world spins around the player, and these cultists have recognised that and placed you within the context of their own myths.”

The cult says you’re the harbinger of the end. Frankly, they can’t wait for the cataclysm. Whether or not that’s who you want to be is a question you’re encouraged to start pondering in this DLC.

There’ll be blizzards at the beach

While Pillars of Eternity II took us to lots of different environments, its defining images were of verdant jungles and sandy beaches. As the title suggests, Beast of Winter changes all that.

Rymrgand shares the title of god of death with Berath, so they split up some of the responsibilities. While Berath deals with more palatable ideas like passage and rebirth, the Beast of Winter is very much about the switch from warmth and life to stillness on a cold slab.

The Beast manifests as a huge yet emaciated auroch, fur flecked with ice and snow. Wherever he goes, he brings bitter winds and is shrouded in squalls. Sure enough, his influence over the island on which the DLC takes place extends to the weather - frost has crept into the land of the living. If left unchecked, the villain of this new story threatens to spread the ice across the entirety of Eora, local climate be damned.

“A lot of it is frost and snow and ice early on,” Scokel says. “And polar bears.”

It’s driven by dark comedy

“There’s certainly a mood that the DLC has,” Scokel muses. “All the Rymrgandian things - the inevitability of darkness and of endings. All things that decay end.”

He laughs. “Which is an interesting note to kick off our DLCs on.”

Throughout the quests and writing of Beast of Winter, dark humour has emerged as a consistent feature. It’s something of a surprise: while there are dashes of dry comedy in the Pillars of Eternity series, it rarely feels as if it could indulge in a Fable-style slapstick aside.

For the DLC, though - a story about the ways people fight back against the inevitability of death in a world with magic, gods, and immortals - comedy became necessary.

“We obviously don’t want to make an incredibly depressing piece of DLC,” Frey says. “It’s definitely an opportunity for us to show how people feel about this sort of thing, but also show the humour of it.”

“One of the reasons we wanted to be funny,” Scokel adds, “was to lighten what could otherwise be a really [miserable] experience.”

You’re stepping outside the Deadfire

The world design of Pillars of Eternity began with Obsidian designer Josh Sawyer flipping over a map of the Forgotten Realms’ Dalelands. But over the course of two games, his team have fleshed out Eoras with unique lore - some of which we only ever read about in books or told by NPCs. Realistically, we’ll never see all of the places referenced in its stories.

“Scale-wise, Pillars is similar to the Infinity Engine games,” Scokel explains. “It’s not really a globetrotting game, it’s more a region-trotting game. And so we look for opportunities to bring in these other areas of the world.”

One example of this in Deadfire is the Valian Trading Company - a colonising influence in the area that allows you to see the culture and architecture of a people from faraway lands. Beast of Winter goes further, taking you to The Beyond, a strange dimension stuffed with devious challenges and shared by ancient souls. There will be some revelations there.

“We’re trying to find opportunities to take the player places that have been mentioned before in lore but haven’t been pulled into fruition,” executive producer Alec Frey says. “It digs into the history of Eora in some ways we haven’t done so far.”

Beast of Winter is coming to PC on August 2nd.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/pillars-of-eternity-2-deadfire/pillars-of-eternity-2-dlc-release-date

Pillars of Eternity 2’s first DLC expansion is out next month

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire’s first DLC is on the way, and soon. Beast of Winter is set to launch is in less than a month, taking you to the southern reaches of the Deadfire Archipelago for a hellish crusade against a monstrous enemy who seeks to bring the world to an wintry end. Beast of Winter launches August 2.

You’ll join the adventure at the behest of the worshippers of the god of entropy and disaster, who want you to fulfill your destiny as the Duskspeaker - a harbinger of the end. Among Rymrgand’s priests, one called Vatnir will join you to do battle with monsters in a fight that heads to Hel itself. At the end of it all, there’s a horror that has even the gods shaking, threatening the a frozen end to the realm of Eora.

We found out much more about the Beast of Winter DLC by speaking with the developers. You can see much more at the link, but you can expect to meet the end of the world with some dark comedy, as you journey beyond the Deadfire - literally into ‘The Beyond,’ a supernatural dimension filled with ancient things.

Beast of Winter is the first paid expansion for Pillars 2, but Obsidian isn’t done with free updates. Alongside the expansion on August 2, all players will get access to the ‘Deck of Many Things’ pack, as well as new merchant ship with lots of “neat stuff” to buy. You’ll also see the 2.0 patch, which makes many bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and adds the new Challenge Mode.

Challenge Mode is similar to the optional Berath’s Blessings you can get at the start of the game’s campaign, but it makes the game harder instead of easier. The mode’s designed to capture the feeling of early Dungeons & Dragons play, and gives you modifiers like killing off a character if they spend too long on the ground.

The folks at Obsidian see challenge mode as pretty similar to another fan-favourite option of theirs. “It changes the way the game plays,” says Beast of Winter narrative designer Alex Scokel, “in small and pretty large ways, in much the same way that Hardcore mode does in New Vegas.”

Previous Pillars 2 free DLC has included new beards, and a whole lot of booze in the Rum Runner's Pack. Two more paid expansions are on the way following Beast of Winter, so there'll be plenty more of Pillars 2 for you to enjoy.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Sigh.

"My realm is the gaping maw of entropy" - so the DLC takes place in Goatse realm?

 

[TT1]

"Aarik what is your favorite companion?"

WHO FUCKING CARES?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿ GREAT STREAM OBSIDIAN.

 

[Infinitron]

They've reached the DLC content now.

 

[TT1]

Ok, I got them to show a new unique great sword.

 

[Steezus]

Fuck, I just started my playthrough yesterday. I only made it to Neketaka on launch and then decided to wait for patches. Codex, what do you think? Should I keep playing or wait for 2.0 + expansion?

 

[Lacrymas]

What I want to see is a good and big dungeon for once. Old City and Fort Deadlight weren't enough.

Fuck, I just started my playthrough yesterday. I only made it to Neketaka on launch and then decided to wait for patches. Codex, what do you think? Should I keep playing or wait for 2.0 + expansion?

What I am doing atm is playing through it before the DLCs and then I'll replay it after all the DLCs are out.

 

[aweigh]

They should've added katanas and nuchakus if they really want this to sell.

 

[Infinitron]

OK, here's the DLC part of the stream:

 

[Steezus]

What I want to see is a good and big dungeon for once. Old City and Fort Deadlight weren't enough.

I don't know, man. They're doing three DLCs in relatively quick succession, I honestly expect them to be limited in scope.

What I am doing atm is playing through it before the DLCs and then I'll replay it after all the DLCs are out.

Yeah, I was thinking about that. But I'm afraid an end game party is gonna screw up the difficulty and turn the DLCs into mundane babby encounters.

 

[Alpan]

2 sec snap judgment sez Alex Scokel doesn't quite inspire confidence.

 

[Safav Hamon]

Vatnir is awesome

 

[Lacrymas]

Yeah, I was thinking about that. But I'm afraid an end game party is gonna screw up the difficulty and turn the DLCs into mundane babby encounters.

I meant replay it from the beginning with a new party, not with my first party.

Is Vatnir the Rymrgand godlike we saw the portrait of?

 

[Steezus]

Yeah, I was thinking about that. But I'm afraid an end game party is gonna screw up the difficulty and turn the DLCs into mundane babby encounters.

I meant replay it from the beginning with a new party, not with my first party.

Oh my bad, misread your post. Yeah, fuck it, I'll just continue playing.



Huh, so according to the stream, the DLC doesn't raise the level cap and is only 10 bucks. I hope I'm mistaken, but it does sound like it's going to be on a smaler scalle compared to White March.

 

[aweigh]

I mean, why raise the level cap at all? It's already level 20, and there's no content in the base game for post level 15 anyway.

If anything what they need to do is add late-level encounters tuned for levels 15-20, not necessary to raise the cap.

 

[Steezus]

Looting crates for booze and RP slow walking through a village. Fucking riveting exclusive DLC gameplay you got there, Obsidian.

I mean, why raise the level cap at all? It's already level 20, and there's no content in the base game for post level 15 anyway.

If anything what they need to do is add late-level encounters tuned for levels 15-20, not necessary to raise the cap.

As I mentioned earlier, I only made it to Neketaka. I haven't the faintest idea how balanced (lol) the end game is. I just mentioned the lack of level cap since I imagine that the DLCs are going to be smaller in scope compared to White March. But I agree with you, designing better encounters and content for high level parties is preferable to just slapping two additional levels onto the characters and calling it a day.

But you know, slapping two additional levels onto the characters and calling it a day is pretty much what I imagine peak game design looks like over at Obsidian.

 

[tjorb]

Just finished the game. Here are my unsolicited thoughts on the ending and the giant plot hole.

Spoiler

The actual ending choices are destroy the machine with some slight variations and destroy everything. Pretty weak. Worse than the endings in Pillars 1. No choices made up to this point seem to influence any of them either.
Where it gets stupid is when you consider his reasons for doing this and he somehow believes kith will remake the wheel. It isn't even explained what impact destroying the wheel has except starving the gods and maybe making everyone just live one life but that isn't confirmed.
That would mean there is a finite pool of souls left. No idea how many more generations of kith can be born.
If that doesn't happen then they are better off without gods.

Now for the plot hole, it has to do with their retcon of engwithans building the wheel. Thaos dialogue in the first game indicate they found the wheel. It seemed like a natural thing when souls cycle between eora and the other side. Now it's a machine.
That is a huge retcon and it brings even more questions with it.
How could they live before the wheel if supposedly, souls aren't reborn.
Josh sawyer even responds to this question by saying that they cut the dialogue with eothas that explained it. That's BS, he is only trying to cover their mistake.

Having done Maia's quests fucks over most small island settlements. Great idea,
There was basically nothing to the main story, go to 3-4? places and choose a faction(or don't and get even worse ending slides).
The rest is filler side quests.

The combat is honestly shit. I made A.I intructions and the game played itself on PotD. Thank god for that.
Worse than the first game shockingly enough.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

the party size limit of five is getting on my nerves. should be an option to play with six characters really

 

[aweigh]

Perhaps when the upcoming editor drops someone will find a way to shoe-horn in a 6th controllable character by fucking with the summons/pet slot.

 

[Safav Hamon]

Huh, so according to the stream, the DLC doesn't raise the level cap and is only 10 bucks. I hope I'm mistaken, but it does sound like it's going to be on a smaler scalle compared to White March.

He said it's larger than Bastards Wound

 

[Erebus]

the party size limit of five is getting on my nerves. should be an option to play with six characters really

Having a party limited to five characters is pretty unusual. In most RPGs, it's either six (the classical size) or four (unsatisfying). I think that having five characters works surprisingly well.

Besides, you get a sixth character to manage in combat if Maia's in the party (and you can even get a seventh one if the PC himself is a ranger).