Game News Pillars of Eternity Released

[Harg Harfardarssen]

n real-time games you can interrupt current unit actions. For instance - enemy casting a spell and you interrupt it by attacking them. In turn-based that either wouldn't happen or would be handled very differently either by a spell taking multiple turns to cast (don't think I've ever seen it and certainly not with stuff that can stop it) or having some passive interrupt thing that makes enemies lose AP, which is not the same.

I've seen this in roguelikes. For example, Nethack calculates actions in fractions of turns, so you can input the attack command and then get hit by some incapacitating status effect like paralyze or sleep before executing the attack.

Also I'm not sure why AP loss doesn't count, particularly in a situation where reaction fire requires you to reserve AP, like Xenonauts' suppression mechanic for example.

 

[Athelas]

Surely you jest. I can think of numerous TB games that allow you to backtrack your movement and cancel your actions right up until you commit, after which, yes, you're committed. In many RT games, your little dude is halfway across the screen before you think better of whatever you were doing.

He's talking about canceling an action that's in progress. What you're describing is the process of choosing what to do in your turn, but you haven't actually done anything yet, there is nothing to cancel.

 

[Blaine]

Like anything, it depends on the implementation. The differences between TB and RT(wP) could either be strengths OR weaknesses.

The tradeoffs when implementing RTwP in a complex, party-based, tactical cRPG are far too high for my liking. What is lost is of much greater value than what is gained.

Frankly though, this discussion has gone on for so long that I can't think properly about it any longer.

Ah! Almost forgot:

Turn-based systems favor the side with the most units as they get more turns (more actions) and it allows the side with more units to block the side with less units in.

Brother, when you play Underrail—you clearly haven't, otherwise you wouldn't say such a thing—you will see the error of your ways. You've made this statement with such confidence, yet it is absolutely, 100% wrong.

 

[Sensuki]

I will agree that doing RTwP properly is more difficult.

In UnderRail you control one guy, so naturally the game probably does something to compensate for that. In games with teams/parties, once you get the other side down to less units than you, usually you have a huge advantage against them in turns/space you can cover on the map.

I don't intend to touch UnderRail or AoD until they are done.

 

[Blaine]

In UnderRail you control one guy, so naturally the game probably does something to compensate for that.

Ah, I thought your mind would go there first. All it does to compensate is silently mock you when you fuck up.

You'll see when you play. Few if any of the enemies in Underrail are weak mooks, and the AI is quite excellent. Battles are won through tactics and proper use of skills, equipment, etc. I suppose it must be the case that enemies aren't quite as strong as the player character, but rest assured it certainly doesn't feel that way in practice.

In games with teams/parties, once you get the other side down to less units than you, usually you have a huge advantage against them in turns/space you can cover on the map.

You're reaching a bit for both sides of this issue by de-emphasizing how much of a disadvantage being outnumbered can be in real-time games, and emphasizing how much of a disadvantage it can be in turn-based games. I think it varies much more based on the game itself than whether or not that game is TB or RTwP.

I don't intend to touch UnderRail or AoD until they are done.

I can hardly respect your opinion that RTwP isn't inferior when you haven't even played Underrail.

 

[zeroprometheus]

I just finished Durances quest line. Whoever dissed this character on this board, memory fails me, deserves a thousand lashes. Hes one of the best written characters I've seen since BG and PT.

 

[Blaine]

Much to my surprise and despite his ludicrous portrait, Kana Rua really grew on me, and it helped that he was ultimately disappointed and unable to fulfill his personal quest in the way he'd wanted to. The developers understood that perfect happy ending are banal shit boring, and that's good. The Chanter class, however, did not grow on me.

Durance's theme and personality were cool, and his dialogue could be well written moment-to-moment, but his actual character arc and the staff interludes seemed fake and forced to me. Avellone was trying for something mystic and mysterious, but it fell flat. Dak'kon he ain't.

I couldn't have given less of a shit about Eder's "medieval redneck" theme or his angst over his brother.

Sagani was actually pretty cool. Somehow, her tough Eskimo mom schtick came off as pretty genuine and believable, and her spirit quest was cool, I guess. Unfortunately she's a shitty build of possibly the worst class in the game, so I didn't use her for long.

I despise Grieving Ellipsis through-and-through. Enough said. Again, Avellone's attempt to write a mystic and mysterious character fell flat with me, and unlike Durance she had few if any redeeming qualities. Unlike many people, I never really used Cipher, though I tested an Adventurer Cipher a bit.

Aloth was a p. cool guy. I liked his brash, insecure, prissy, arrogant demeanor and his split personality. Also, Wizards are the tits.

I liked Pallegina, a lot, despite her being a strong and oppressed (feathers are weird; patriarchal ducs bels ordering her around; etc.) womyn of color written by Sawyer. She was genuinely ballsy and liked to pick on everyone else. Paladin's a fun class, though far from the best. She also had a sensible personal quest line rather than mystic dreamy bullshit a la Durance and Grieving Ellipsis.

I really can't say much about Hiravias, since he went straight to Caed Nua after I met him. He comes too damned late in the game. Can't say much about Druid either, as I never really used it. Both seem like they could be cool.

Favorite overall: Pallegina
Last-favorite overall: Grieving Ellipsis

Ranking:

• Pallegina
• Aloth and Kana Rua (tie)
• Sagani
• Durance
• Eder

• Grieving Mother

(Hiravias?)

 

[Sensuki]

 

[Irenaeus]

I like how everyone has a different experience with the game.

 

[tuluse]

Aloth would have been incredible if you could make the chick the dominant personalty.

 

[Irenaeus]

Aloth would have been incredible if you could make the chick the dominant personalty.

Or at least make her come out more to curse his faggotry and annoy him in general.

 

[Blaine]

Joke's on you guys. Obshitian lured you into preferring a woman trapped in a man's body, and they did it on purpose.

You've been rused!

Really, none of the companions hold a candle to most of Torment's. Oh well. There will never be another companion as cool as Dak'kon.

 

[Ninjerk]

Joke's on you guys. Obshitian lured you into preferring a woman trapped in a man's body, and they did it on purpose.

You've been rused!

Really, none of the companions hold a candle to most of Torment's. Oh well. There will never be another companion as cool as Dak'kon.

Don't kid yourself--the Codex doesn't need to be lured into anything.

 

[Turok]

Joke's on you guys. Obshitian lured you into preferring a woman trapped in a man's body, and they did it on purpose.

You've been rused!

Really, none of the companions hold a candle to most of Torment's. Oh well. There will never be another companion as cool as Dak'kon.

Nostalgic talk.

The true is that when you play to much games there is nothing new on anything and everything looks boring, let the new minds play actual games, and in few years you will see those kids of today talking about how good was POE and how good was Eder?, they will be the new codex generation.

 

[A horse of course]

Dak'kon is boring and Morte is an unfunny irritation.

 

[hiver]

Aloth was a p. cool guy. I liked his brash, insecure, prissy, arrogant demeanor and his split personality.
/
Obshitian lured you into preferring a woman trapped in a man's body, and they did it on purpose.

Thats really funny when one puts you in he context.

 

[Irenaeus]

To me, Aloth was the most boring companion before the woman came out, when he at least became lolzy. Even then, I got rid of him quickly. The Haraiva druid guy is underappreciated, he makes good jokes too. Durance, GM and Edér are the best companions so far in terms of emotional connection. Kana, Sawyergina and Absent Mother also seem interesting/crazy. Starting Act 3, I'll finish their quests to properly assess them.

 

[Jasede]

Truth is, y'all having such strong disagreements on the companions is a sign of evocative writing that struck a chord, good or bad.

 

[Irenaeus]

Truth is, y'all having such strong disagreements on the companions is a sign of evocative writing that struck a chord, good or bad.

It's like I said, the writing on PoE is great.

 

[tuluse]

It's like I said, the writing on PoE is great.

100% great

 

[Morality Games]

I can't say it helps Durance and Grieving Mother that having character development gated behind stat checks is part of what made Planescape awesome. Raising your attributes over time in order to proceed with your companions is part of what makes social skills/attributes fun in a role playing game.

 

[Tigranes]

Finished ironman solo on Hard with the monk yesterday. Dear god Thaos was a bitch and I really thought I was going to fuck it up at the very last battle.

I went with high Might and decent Dex , Per Res, Moon Godlike (surely the only racial bonus worth any minmaxer). The unarmoured and unarmed monk is actually a fast killing machine, such that you can basically run in and punvh everything to death in Act 1 without thinking. Decent Dex + Torment's Reach + the lower wound threshold talent + Moon Godlike healing: everything dies in a matter of seconds, sometimes multiple ones die when you line them up right. The sheer number and frequency of hits also means you get pretty decent interrupt, so for slower opponents trying to use some abilities on you they might never get to do anything.

Things change later when you get to late Act 2 & Act 3, when you start finding encounters where they can attack your Fort/Will saves effectively to get you prone/paralysed/etc and also pack enough punch to exploit the monk's lack of any substantial class healing abilities. The tree-peoples' paralysis in areas like Elmshore can be lethal (nearly died to one at level 9, had to use the Flagellant's Path ability then eat disengagement hits getting the fuck out). Eventually I switched to wearing armour (Blaidh Golah (sp?) Hide Armour for Prone/Stuck bonuses while keeping recovery penalty low) and using weapons (Blesca's Labour, a Superb life leech club you buy in Twin Elms, and Oidreadt, a life leech stiletto enchanted to Superb) to help keep endurance up.

I did tackle a couple of the harder fights. I did Raedric with no problems at level 5, but chickened out of Undead Raedric. I got to Level 6 of Endless Paths but didn't bother with more (never going to beat Adra Dragon), and only did a couple bounties until I got to level 12. I did kill the Sky Dragon, which actually wasn't very difficult.

The key strategy for Sky Dragon and Thaos, ironically, was Deep Pockets Talent + Fan of Flames scrolls, as well as Potions of Major Endurance. I actually didn't need Fan of Flames (or any other scrolls) for most of the game, but because of the way Accuracy controls both melee attacks and spell scrolls, I had a pretty high hit rate with them, and such scrolls are really one of the few ways for the monk to do damage against enemies with high DR against physical hits. It also helped that I used Turning of the Wheel talent, so Sky Dragon would regularly get my monk on 10 Wounds giving me 50% burn damage. Sky Dragon was easy to keep at an equilibrium in terms of healing and damage. Thaos was much much harder, because he casts that buff which boosts their accuracy etc. but also affects you, killing your accuracy. He can stack two separate ones resulting in something like -35 melee accuracy and -20 defences. When your 90+ accuracy and defences go down to ~60 and they're still hitting and defending with ~90, it's brutal. Fan of Flames or fists, you end up grazing and missing and getting knocked down in a death spiral. What I did was dash to the left as soon as battle began, which leaves one of the giant statues out of LOS and still. I had the Scarab summon distract Thaos while I used fan of flames to get statue #1 and Thaos down to Badly Wounded. Thaos at this point soul-jumps to the nearest giant. I then used another summon to keep that one distracted while running over to the stationery one, allowing me to kill everything one on one.

I'd expect Rogues, with a similar damage output & speed as Monk but with better ways of escaping situations, woudl also fare well.

 

[Ninjerk]

Finished ironman solo on Hard with the monk yesterday. Dear god Thaos was a bitch and I really thought I was going to fuck it up at the very last battle.

I went with high Might and decent Dex , Per Res, Moon Godlike (surely the only racial bonus worth any minmaxer). The unarmoured and unarmed monk is actually a fast killing machine, such that you can basically run in and punvh everything to death in Act 1 without thinking. Decent Dex + Torment's Reach + the lower wound threshold talent + Moon Godlike healing: everything dies in a matter of seconds, sometimes multiple ones die when you line them up right. The sheer number and frequency of hits also means you get pretty decent interrupt, so for slower opponents trying to use some abilities on you they might never get to do anything.

Things change later when you get to late Act 2 & Act 3, when you start finding encounters where they can attack your Fort/Will saves effectively to get you prone/paralysed/etc and also pack enough punch to exploit the monk's lack of any substantial class healing abilities. The tree-peoples' paralysis in areas like Elmshore can be lethal (nearly died to one at level 9, had to use the Flagellant's Path ability then eat disengagement hits getting the fuck out). Eventually I switched to wearing armour (Blaidh Golah (sp?) Hide Armour for Prone/Stuck bonuses while keeping recovery penalty low) and using weapons (Blesca's Labour, a Superb life leech club you buy in Twin Elms, and Oidreadt, a life leech stiletto enchanted to Superb) to help keep endurance up.

I did tackle a couple of the harder fights. I did Raedric with no problems at level 5, but chickened out of Undead Raedric. I got to Level 6 of Endless Paths but didn't bother with more (never going to beat Adra Dragon), and only did a couple bounties until I got to level 12. I did kill the Sky Dragon, which actually wasn't very difficult.

The key strategy for Sky Dragon and Thaos, ironically, was Deep Pockets Talent + Fan of Flames scrolls, as well as Potions of Major Endurance. I actually didn't need Fan of Flames (or any other scrolls) for most of the game, but because of the way Accuracy controls both melee attacks and spell scrolls, I had a pretty high hit rate with them, and such scrolls are really one of the few ways for the monk to do damage against enemies with high DR against physical hits. It also helped that I used Turning of the Wheel talent, so Sky Dragon would regularly get my monk on 10 Wounds giving me 50% burn damage. Sky Dragon was easy to keep at an equilibrium in terms of healing and damage. Thaos was much much harder, because he casts that buff which boosts their accuracy etc. but also affects you, killing your accuracy. He can stack two separate ones resulting in something like -35 melee accuracy and -20 defences. When your 90+ accuracy and defences go down to ~60 and they're still hitting and defending with ~90, it's brutal. Fan of Flames or fists, you end up grazing and missing and getting knocked down in a death spiral. What I did was dash to the left as soon as battle began, which leaves one of the giant statues out of LOS and still. I had the Scarab summon distract Thaos while I used fan of flames to get statue #1 and Thaos down to Badly Wounded. Thaos at this point soul-jumps to the nearest giant. I then used another summon to keep that one distracted while running over to the stationery one, allowing me to kill everything one on one.

I'd expect Rogues, with a similar damage output & speed as Monk but with better ways of escaping situations, woudl also fare well.

The first TCS was completed by a rogue. I believe it's also been completed (by the same guy) with a Paladin. I haven't been following since around the same time.

 

[Anac'raxus]

Joke's on you guys. Obshitian lured you into preferring a woman trapped in a man's body, and they did it on purpose.

You've been rused!

Really, none of the companions hold a candle to most of Torment's. Oh well. There will never be another companion as cool as Dak'kon.

Nostalgic talk.

The true is that when you play to much games there is nothing new on anything and everything looks boring, let the new minds play actual games, and in few years you will see those kids of today talking about how good was POE and how good was Eder?, they will be the new codex generation.

No way. The Planescape interactions where you can navigate dialogues to power up your pals were awesome, you even needed to build your character to get to the right dialogues, and the content of the dialogues themselves wasn't just filler to suit the mini-game. I've seen nothing close since. Durance was the closest I've seen, but that "close" is very far away (no power up either, I bet Sawyer vetoed or would have vetoed that).

 

[zero29]

Patch Notes: 1.05 (In Progress)


NOTE: The 1.05 beta will be released later today if our initial tests come back positive.

This is a big one. Patch 1.05 features hundreds of bug fixes, balance changes, and new UI features. There are many minor fixes that are not listed in these notes.

Please Note: Save games in 1.05 are not compatible with 1.04 or earlier versions. The game will automatically back up your save games in a special folder in the save game directory after converting the saves to the new format.

Known Issues

Spoiler

• "Previous" button is disabled in character creation. This is currently being fixed and should be fine in the next beta that is released.

New Features

Spoiler

• You can now rename save games.
• You can now change the portrait and sound set of characters from the character sheet. Click on the gear icon to open the customization window. You can only use this feature on player characters and hired (non-companion) characters.
• New Stash sorting. You can now sort stash by item type, enchant score, and sell value.
• Added a news feature on the main menu to keep you informed on patches and Kickstarter updates.
• Added a new color for unique items in the inventory.
• Added a new hotkey for switching weapon sets on selected characters.
• You can now bind extra mouse buttons to Ability hotkeys.
• There's a new option to reset newly recruited companions to level 1 (without losing the experience). This will allow you to level up companions to your liking.

Balance

Spoiler

• Reblanced XP rewards of some quests, particularly the bounty quests, to prevent parties from hitting max level before Twin Elms.
• Ciphers now start with 1/4 max Focus instead of 1/2.
• Wizard and Cipher's base endurance has been raised from 30 to 36, and per level from 10 to 12.
• Wizard and Priests health multipliers were raised from 3 to 4.
• Interdiction range has been reduced from 20 to 10.
• Tuned down damage on the Retaliation mod.
• Citzal's Spirit Lance will now do 50% more damage, is faster, and has an increased AoE.
• Sanguine Plate's Retaliate mod has been replaced with Spell Holding: Frenzy.
• Wind Blight's Returning Storm is now set to 1/encounter.
• Earth Blight's Teleport ability is now set to 2/encounter.
• Sturdy bonus is improved from +20 to +30 vs Prone.
• Hand and Key's Preservation has been replaced with Loyal.
• Aru Breaker's Preservation has been replaced with a +1 Speed.
• Angio's Gambeson's Reflex bonus is replaced with 1/day Deleterious Alacrity of Motion.
• Rebel's Call Preservation has been replaced with Wary.
• Lightning Strikes damage is increased by 25%.
• Fan of Flames damage is reduced by 25%.
• Minor Arcane Reflection base duration is changed to 60 seconds.
• Llengrath's Displaced Image gives 50% hit to graze conversion on Deflection and Reflex.
• Wizard's Double now grants +40 Deflection against a single attack.
• Mirrored Images now grants a base +30 Deflection. It decreases by 5 after each hit.
• Ilengrath's Safeguard's bonuses are now unified.
• Crucible of the Soul, Speaker to the Restless, and Steps to the Wheel ranges have been increased.
• Arcane Veil now grants +50 Deflection, with Hardened Veil adding +25, for a total of +75 Deflection.
• Scroll of Paralysis is now slightly weaker and has a higher skill requirement.
• All Spell Holdings are 2/encounter.
• Soul Shock radius reduced from 2.5 to 1.25.
• Blizzard damage reduced significantly and attack speed increased to from 0.2 to 0.8.
• Overwhelming Wave now uses a range of 30-40 and stun duration lowered from 10s to 8s.
• Noxious Burst trap damage now is in line with other player trap damage.
• Reduced the accuracy on higher level player traps.
• Unbroken is now a per encounter ability.
• Malignant Cloud damage increased.
• Ghost Blades set to foe only.
• Death Ring damage slightly raised, made foe only.
• Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar switched over to foe only.
• Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon set to foe only.
• Stag's Horn damaged lowered. Reflex and Deflection penalties cut in half, and reduced duration from 15 to 10.
• Bracers of Spiritual Power and Archer's Gloves reduced damage from +20% to +10%.
• Scroll of Revival AoE reduced, range slightly reduced, and restored endurance halved.
• Marked Prey and Sworn Enemy have been set to 0 recovery actions, so they can be used and the Ranger/Paladin can immediately act again.

Items, Spells, and Abilities

Spoiler

• Many spells and abilities will have more accurate and updated stat blocks and improved output in the combat log, tooltips, and character sheet.
• Modal abilities now have activation and deactivation timers.
• Fixed an issue where some AOE attacks were not displaying the extra Intellect bonus properly.
• Added new effect when petrified.
• Traps can now be passively detected at -4 Mechanics.
• Added an animation to the Fox and the Hunter ability and removed the damage effect.
• Second Chance will no longer trigger the defeat screen if the entire party goes down right before the effect fires.
• Fixed display of the cast UI for Seven Nights She Waited While the White Winds Wept.
• Tuning Wheel's effect is not hostile anymore.
• Painful Interdiction is now correctly marked as hostile.
• Escape should now always prevent disengagement attacks.
• Seven Nights She Waited While the White Winds Wept will no longer attack allies.
• Barbarian Threatening Presence will no longer spam the combat log when the Barbarian loses all endurance.
• NPC Chanters will now resume chanting once they use their invocations.
• Getting maimed will not clear fatigue.
• All wall spells should now disappear when combat ends.
• New Glossary entries for spellbind, spell holding, and spell striking.
• Switched the ingredients for Freezing and Shocking lashes.
• Druid's Wildstrike Belt is now working as intended.
• Marked Prey is now working at intended.
• Draining Whip is now working as intended.
• One Stands Alone is now working as intended.
• Interrupting Blows is now working as intended, and will correctly increase interrupt.
• Mortification of the Soul is now working as intended, and should only award 1 wound.
• Scion of Flame, Spirit of Decay, Secrets of the Rime and Heart of the Storm should now correctly increase damage of all abilities.
• Driving Flight will now work properly with Blunderbuss type guns.
• The Retaliate mod should not strike allies after using Field Triage.
• Pet fatigue has been removed.
• About 30 item icons have been updated, including some backer items, such as the Hermit's Hat.

Quests and Companions

Spoiler

• Party member stats on the character sheet will now show properly if the companion is removed and re-added from the stronghold.
• Fixed issues where companions could lose their items when assigned to the stronghold.
• Grieving Mother's Perception and Intellect scores have been switched.
• The Man Who Waits: The citizens of the Sanitarium will no longer become hostile if you kill and loot Azo after the Sanitarium riot and then fight flesh golems. Fix is retroactive.
• Fixed issue with a reputation loss with Gilded Vale when entering Raedric's Hold.
• Removed disposition exploit with the Records Keeper.
• A few encounter placement changes.
• Fixed issues with stronghold hirelings becoming hostile.
• Retroactive fix to update Sanitarium quest stage to proper state if you already talked to Ethelmoer and then asked for Sanitarium directions from a city guard.
• Added retroactive fix if you've advanced Heritage Hill quest to Icantha but then asked a city guard for directions to Heritage Hill.
• Fixed a number of issues with the Winds of Steel quest. This should be a retroactive fix if the quest was already started before working on the second quest with the Dozens or Doemenels, or if the quest was acquired or completed in conjunction with Bronze Beneath the Lake or Changing of the Guard.
• Attacking any of the main three Defiance Bay factions after having secured their invitation to the hearing will now make Lady Webb give you an invite in the name of Dunryd Row.
• Fixed issues with the Hermit of Hadret House quest.
• If Sul or Oernos were defeated before speaking to Desthwn for the first time then The Old Queen and the New King quest will not revert to an earlier quest stage
• Hendyna's conversation is fixed up to be properly linked together.
• Fixed a case where one of Clyver's responses would not appear in conversation if you ask him twice about the hearing.
• Killing Alwah while she appears in Oldsong now prevents her from appearing alive in Galawain's Maw when you turn in the Prison of Ice quest
• Fixed an issue where the Hall of Revealed Mysteries would turn hostile after opening the door to the Elder Archives and then re-loading into the scene (while not in stealth).
• Rinatto will no longer appear in the Celestial Sapling if you convince him to leave Twin Elms as part of the Hard Bargain quest.)

UI

Spoiler

• Changed the display of most stat multipliers to be percentage based.
• Added Shift as a default control for multi-selection, in addition to Ctrl.
• Inverted the Stronghold log.
• Improved the output in the Bestiary and added beast abilities.
• Portraits now turn grey if Stamina is being capped by Health or Fatigue.
• Improved multi-selection.
• Stronghold adventures will now show the duration before you embark.
• Added apply button to resolution options screen.
• Default stealth key on Linux is now Ctrl.
• Weapon set buttons are now disabled when Spirit Shifted.
• Fixed several issues with containers and mouse cursor state on hover.
• Fixed an issue where the Lore requirement on scrolls was always displaying as red text.
• Fixed an issue where weapon sets were not visually unlocking.
• HUD does not upscale until 1920x1200.

General Fixes

Spoiler

• Removed exploit of being able to transition into a new area with a dead player character. Sorry speed runners.
• Spells and abilities stuck in 'Already Activated' state will be fixed whenever a game is loaded.
• Now camping in a stronghold map when Brighthollow is unlocked uses Brighthollow instead.
• Party members will no longer switch weapon sets when charmed.
• Resolved a problem where misses on some secondary attacks were not being reported in the combat log.
• Camera should center on party members faster.
• Trial of Iron: Loading a game will now force a save to happen to prevent save scumming.
• Fixed many issues related to auto pause.
• Firearms will now reload when combat ends on alternate weapon sets.
• Poison and interrupted VO now has a cooldown.
• Allow quick-loading when UI windows, like dialogue, are up.