Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Fry]

Games toss saves all over the place. First thing I do for shit I care about is check the save location and make my own backups.

You did an upgrade without backups? Ya done fucked up.

 

[Irenaeus II]

I agree, you had problems getting group for instances because all raids were composed of a fighter and 5 ciphers.

wtf are instances

 

[CptMace]

Pillars is so bad it even gets the save folder location wrong

Really enjoying the xpac content so far, though the way they tried to tie the white march region to the base game is pretty cheap and a bit grotesque (regarding the regoin's subplot), but at least they tried i guess. The new region in itself however feels coherent and interesting to explore, as stated above they indeed caught the iwd feel well.

The wilderness parts although have some cool encounters, just fought a pack of several ice trolls covered by a supporting lizard whatever-its-name-is thing, although had to drop that good old gaun's share in edér's hand to fight the ice wisps.
Though I started the content at level 5, am now level 7, so maybe my good experience comes from the fact i'm underleveled

 

[Irenaeus II]

Pillars is so bad it even gets the save folder location wrong

Really enjoying the xpac content so far, though the way they tried to tie the white march region to the base game is pretty cheap and a bit grotesque (regarding the regoin's subplot), but at least they tried i guess. The new region in itself however feels coherent and interesting to explore, as stated above they indeed caught the iwd feel well.

The wilderness parts although have some cool encounters, just fought a pack of several ice trolls covered by a supporting lizard whatever-its-name-is thing, although had to drop that good old gaun's share in edér's hand to fight the ice wisps.
Though I started the content at level 5, am now level 7, so maybe my good experience comes from the fact i'm underleveled

I thought recommended level for WM was 5. Roguey

 

[Zeronet]

I also updated to win 10 but my saves are also in the cloud on steam. You can also search in windows.old folder if you didn't delete it.

Cloud was annoying me, so i disabled it. Managed to recover the autosave using recurva.

 

[prodigydancer]

Nice, Ciphers were too good.

/sigh

Pre-1.05 cipher was the easiest class to play (mostly because it was so well-designed) but if we're talking raw destructive power, cipher had nothing on CF/FoF spamming wizard, DW carnage barb (who needs CC if enemies drop like flies around you?) or even Sunbeam/Blizzard druid. 1.05 pretty much killed the class and what they're doing now is kicking the corpse.

So much for balance...

 

[Irenaeus II]

Drinking your cipher tears here.

 

[prodigydancer]

Drinking your cipher tears here.

You'll die of thirst as I don't use ciphers anymore. That post was just for the record.

 

[Irenaeus II]

You'll die of thirst as I don't use ciphers anymore. That post was just for the record.

 

[Excidium II]

Cyphers were p. damn OP.

So were barbs because of the One Stands Alone bug.

 

[Dorateen]

- this is not Icewind Dale where you fight most of the time. There are actually many quests, interesting characters and lore.

Just like Icewind Dale. Sweet.

 

[Roguey]

I thought recommended level for WM was 5. Roguey

"Personally, I think a 7th or 8th level party is a good fit for TWM's crit path, but the side content is meant for characters that are 11+."

 

[Irenaeus II]

"Personally, I think a 7th or 8th level party is a good fit for TWM's crit path, but the side content is meant for characters that are 11+."

Thanks, I guess he was right then

 

[CptMace]

Well it's not surprising, the ruleset being what it is, being underleveled simply means you'll have to hit a bit more while being able to get hit a bit less.
Which reminds us all of poe's problem, its ruleset sucks and one's feeling towards it can be summarized by the monk's portrait.

Still the xpac is good though.

 

[Shevek]

2.0 did a real blow to Ciphers, if you ask me. Perception can't be dumped anymore, so Dex can't maxed. You still have to add as much Might and Intellect as possible, so Dex has to be 10; 12-14 tops if you want to sacrifice Con or Res.
In short, +27% attack speed bonus for a min/maxed Cipher is basically gone, so focus per second takes a serious hit. Least they could do is buff the initial focus again.

Your pissed because more than one stat build is viable and you cant run around with homo habilis level stats with zero downside?

 

[Fairfax]

Your pissed because more than one stat build is viable and you cant run around with homo habilis level stats with zero downside?

What are you even talking about? I guess someone put shit on the pot you smoked.

 

[tdphys]

2.0 did a real blow to Ciphers, if you ask me. Perception can't be dumped anymore, so Dex can't maxed. You still have to add as much Might and Intellect as possible, so Dex has to be 10; 12-14 tops if you want to sacrifice Con or Res.
In short, +27% attack speed bonus for a min/maxed Cipher is basically gone, so focus per second takes a serious hit. Least they could do is buff the initial focus again.

Just dump res... and be careful in combat. the problem with the stats before is that perception was a dump stat for *everything* ... that's what it was... the dump stat you dumped because it did nothing. Every other class suffers just as bad with this as cyphers do by losing the dump stat, which means none of them lose *relatively* in comparison.

 

[btbgfel]

Those mercs in cragholdt and their powerful equipments, feels like entering saradush first time again.

 

[Infinitron]

John Walker review!

Wot I Think: Pillars Of Eternity – The White March Part 1

It’s been nearly half a year since we devoured Pillars Of Eternity. Now Obsidian are back with another great big chunk, in the form of the first half of The White March[official site]. Does the expansion give good reason to return to the Dyrwood? Here’s wot I think.


Expansion packs that take place before the end of a game always sit a little uneasily with me. Loading an old save, and then heading off on a diversion from the game I’ve already finished, feels like an invasion of the narrative – do I then continue on and finish the game again with this extra chapter in the lives of my characters? Or is it a pocket of alternative reality that I play for the sake of its existing, then quit with the party just stood there with new loot, new skills, new levels, and nowhere to go?

That awkwardness set aside, The White March does the job of diverting you with a pile-on of new quests and side-quests in the snowy climes to the North. Invited up there once you’re in or past Act 2 of the main game, the village of Stalwart is under attack by a cornucopia of threats, most pressingly some angry ogres who are presently smashing shit up. Once you’ve bopped them each on the head, the villagers stand in an orderly queue to tell you their woes, lost property concerns and musings on the abandoned forge that once produced the wonders of Durgan steel. And with an armful of things to do, you’re pulled back in once more.

Beyond that, yes, it’s a lot more Pillars Of Eternity, and how much you want that depends upon your feelings toward the main game. For me, it’s my game of the year, so another stretching jaunt in its realms could be a huge treat. But if you’re the sort who laments that it’s not as action-packed as The Witcher 3, then this new content will do little to change your mind.

Stalwart is a rather dull village, and features no interesting buildings nor characters – but for one in a barrel of fish – sadly. It’s a bland hub from which the rest of your adventures begin, and fortunately these are far more fun. With your quest list stuffed with new challenges, you can begin de-mist-ifying the local maps, battling an array of new enemy types, and stumbling upon more side-quests, loot and caves. It’s comfortingly familiar.

That fish-barrel man – that’s Zahua. A masochist, in the name of self-awareness, he’s a deeply peculiar old Savannah Folk Monk, well equipped for dual-handed combat and making deeply strange remarks about the importance of self-denial. The other new party member you can recruit is a Construct – a metal golem with the soul of a psychopath – called Devil Of Caroc. Oh gosh, could it be – an HK47? That’s just what the game needed! Well, no. Instead she’s a rather under-written, over-justified mass killer, neither entertaining sociopath nor misunderstood antihero. Both new characters appear like they should be packed with fun, but proved to be entirely unenigmatic.

The larger story itself is self-contained despite this being Part One of a two-part DLC. But having finished it, I’m perplexed as to why it was picked to feature at the centre of the first big addition six months later. While it would have proven a perfectly acceptable diversion if included in the game at launch, there’s nothing here that struck me as outstanding. I had imagined they’d want to say something, or pull the game in a surprising direction. At least have some sense of a dramatic tale to tell. But it really is as it first appears – about trying to find some old forge in a mountain. The motif of its being haunted by the spirits who once worked there is achingly unoriginal, and offers no twists or unexpected moments at all.

None of it is bad. It’s essential that this be clear. It does a perfectly fine job of adding a bit more content to Pillars, new characters to talk to, new things to kill, and potentially new weapons to craft. But, well, if you’re going to wait half a year and then charge a premium, I’d expect it to be something… more. More than ordinary.

If you found the combat in the main game to be a touch unnecessarily difficult (no, stop you – you, the person who says it was too easy on the hardest setting – first, no one believes you, second, shush), then I’m afraid you won’t be less frustrated here. I couldn’t help think that the original Pillars would have been a twenty hour RPG if it didn’t make every encounter with a group of indentikit bads into a painstaking battle. This is the case here too, and while for the most part the uninterested can switch the difficulty down to Easy to let such fights become matter-of-fact, there are some encounters that are way out of proportion.

I am not ashamed to admit I picked to let my team remained over-specced for The White March, purely because I wanted to let my emphasis fall on story and dialogue. I very much enjoy the process of stabbing at the spacebar, flinging instructions to my team, then unpausing to let it briefly play out. But only so many times an hour. Those times are ideally the tougher fights, more intricate battles, rather than the constant minion encounters. Unfortunately, in this DLC there’s a side-quest where my level 12 team were being wiped out in two turns, even when I’d switched the game difficulty down to Easy.

Although, oddly, had I high enough conversation skills, it should have been possible to talk my way out of it. God knows how. I especially focused on such skills when I played the full game, yet an incredible number of conversation options were redded out throughout the expansion. Since the zone is designed for half that level number, it’s really odd just how much couldn’t be picked. And indeed, despite seemingly having at least one set of options unlocked for that particular scene, it wouldn’t let me reach any other conclusion than an entirely impossible fight scene. Sadly I just walked away from that chain.

There are a couple of moments of sloppiness. Poor voice direction means intonation is off (the worst example being, “…on account of those dwarves having a row” pronouncing “row” as if with an oar), and the pathfinding seems worse than before. For so many encounters I had to hold characters by the hand to have them hit the open foe, rather than just spin on the spot. That could just be my noticing it more, of course.

However, AI is improved, whether you get the expansion or not. The 2.0 patch introduces the ability to give basic behavioural guides to your crew, including – thank goodness – the ability to use their per-rest abilities of their own accord. If when you heard about AI options being added in you were thinking of something like Dragon Age’s incredible system, you’ll be disappointed. This is far more crude, just letting you choose whether they’re aggressive or placid, defensive or offensive. Great additions to have, of course.

There’s a good couple of days’ play here, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of it. Those fearing it would just stop unfinished need not worry, as while it teases more to come, the story is self-contained. The issue is, it’s just so unremarkable. There’s no great depth, no interesting meta-narrative, no unique pull. It’s just a bit more Pillars – a section you’d not have minded in the main game, but never remembered a while after. Which makes it hard to get particularly excited about – especially at £11. Once it’s over, well, yes – there I was back at the end of the game, this time with a level 13 team, and a vague feeling about whether I should just finish it again for the closure.

(no, stop you – you, the person who says it was too easy on the hardest setting – first, no one believes you, second, shush)

lulz

 

[Sensuki]

The issue is, it’s just so unremarkable. There’s no great depth, no interesting meta-narrative, no unique pull.

This pretty much sums up nu-Obsidian.

 

[Infinitron]

This pretty much sums up nu-Obsidian.

Said by a man who considers PoE his game of the year. Who knows, Sensuki, you might end up liking this expansion!

Monocled comments:

Wasn’t Pillars was originally designed, at least in part, as a tactical RPG? That tank & spank worked at all always seemed to me a failure of the A.I, a failure now resolved. Pillars was never meant to emulate the ease provided by MMO combat, the difficulty is half the fun!

“Unfortunately, in this DLC there’s a side-quest where my level 12 team were being wiped out in two turns, even when I’d switched the game difficulty down to Easy”

You’re not supposed to confront the end-game content level 14 optional enemies until just before the end. The devs may have erred slightly in not signposting the fire you threw yourself into; others have also had this problem. But hey, fair warning to everyone else.

Some do. Enemies actually use their abilities, so if they’re skilled at ducking interdiction attacks, you can reasonably expect them to blow past your front line. Opponents now use their modal abilities, they never did so before. This game is no longer content to feed you kills; it’s trying to win outright, and in every battle.

Creating a stable front no longer means wearing the heaviest armor, strapping the biggest shield, but only swinging a longsword. All the while your casters in the back are only wearing clothes, because they never come under fire. As of Pillars combat A.I. 2.0, coming under fire is everyone’s problem.

Try replacing the sword & board with a poleaxe, to add a credible threat to interdiction fire. Your mage should consider more adventurous fashions, I hear that chainmail is always stylish.

 

[Roguey]

Said by a man who considers PoE his game of the year.

Surely he liked Serpent in the Staglands more, the grog's choice.

 

[Infinitron]

Surely he liked Serpent in the Staglands more, the grog's choice.

(I'm talking about John Walker, who he quoted. DU really needs to bring back recursive reply quoting.)

 

[Roguey]

Oh, all right.

We all knew this wouldn't be a MotB, but how disappointing it is to see that my Honest Hearts prediction was right on the money.

The other new party member you can recruit is a Construct – a metal golem with the soul of a psychopath – called Devil Of Caroc. Oh gosh, could it be – an HK47? That’s just what the game needed! Well, no. Instead she’s a rather under-written, over-justified mass killer, neither entertaining sociopath nor misunderstood antihero. Both new characters appear like they should be packed with fun, but proved to be entirely unenigmatic.

Haha that's Josh all right. He hates unrealistic ott characters. Joshua Graham part 2.

 

[Infinitron]

Haha that's Josh all right. He hates unrealistic ott characters. Joshua Graham part 2.

Heh, yeah. There's this bandit encounter in PoE in an area called Dyrford Crossing that's meant to be a bit amusing. Like, not HAHA LULZ but a few of them are sort of goofy, in an understated way. And I rather like that. Here, you can see it in this video:


(At around 14:40)

Playing this, you just KNOW that if Bioware had made this game the encounter would have gone over the top with Monty Python quotes and stuff.