Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Bubbles]

Didn't save files use to be ordered by date? I have no idea why the current system (autosaves always first, quicksaves always second) was in any way desired or useful.

 

[Iajawl]

I played PoE into Act 2 and got bored by the combat. Has this expansion actually made anyone change their mind about the combat difficulty in the base game ?

 

[Fairfax]

IEMod beta version is up.

 

[Excidium II]

Didn't save files use to be ordered by date? I have no idea why the current system (autosaves always first, quicksaves always second) was in any way desired or useful.

I prefer it that way. Organize by type then by date.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

I finished with White March. Now I have the Cragholdt and the fights there are extremely hard plus bounties. It seems like the perfect place to look for a challenge. It took me exactly one week ( I still have bounties and Cragholdt). The expansion really deserves the money.

 

[Fry]

Didn't save files use to be ordered by date? I have no idea why the current system (autosaves always first, quicksaves always second) was in any way desired or useful.

They've never been ordered by date. It annoys the fuck out of me.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

"Finished" the expansion just in time for Stasis!

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

Did you manage to kill the dragon? Motherfucker is annoying me. Fucking breath weapon.

No, but then again I could not kill the adra one in endless paths.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Starwars]

Brief impressions from the village and one of the wilderness areas (including dungeon):

-Went in as a level 6 group, playing on Hard this time around. Fairly manageable except for one encounter which I didn't beat. Would probably have to return later if playing on PotD
-The areas look really nice. They nailed the "snowy theme", and the new music is great and fits like a glove.
-Writing-wise, it feels fairly similar to the main campaign. If you liked the writing, you'll enjoy it here also and if you didn't, well... Obviously can't comment on the main story of it yet as I haven't gotten far.
-Got Zahua so far and I'm liking him quite a bit. Crazy but not really overdone. Nice voice acting.
-Improved scripted interactions are quite nice.
-Quests around town seems fairly straight forward.
-The wilderness area felt well paced to me, moreso than the main campaigns' wilderness areas. Still suffers from a sorta crazy eco-system where it kinda feels like you find all kinds of different shit in this one area.
-The dungeon was a two story one and unfortunately... The whole "clear a room, move on to the next, clear that, move on, etc" was very noticeable still. The wildeness areas felt way more varied and interesting than the encounters down in the dungeon.
-On the plus side, I think it may be possible to stealth the dungeon (or a large part of it). Seemed to be a few different ways through and you can be diplomatic with the boss of it.
-Liking that companions are "seamlessly" integrated, main campaign characters will comment on shit in the expansion and Zahua (again, haven't found the Devil yet) will comment on shit in the main campaign.
-While the AI is improved in what it does, there are still bugs or oversights where they'll struggle with pathfinding or where you can pull enemies away from each other and such.

I'm enjoying the expansion quite a bit but it's obvious that it was designed to fit in with the base-game in terms of feel and make it bigger. There are improvements scattered about but it's still obviously the same game. If you didn't like Pillars, then I doubt you would fall in love with the expansion.
With the second part, the game will feel quite huge I think.

 

[Roguey]

Patch beta's out http://forums.obsidian.net/blog/7/entry-187-update-notes-201/

Party members will now default to AI: On and Instruction Set: None.

The people who need this the most do need it on by default. I even saw a goon complain about it.

• Stormcaller's 1st requirement lowered to 250 shock damage. 2nd requirement lowered to 5 druids defeated.
• Greenstone Staff 1st requirement lowered to 125 damage vs. beetles. 2nd requirement lowered to 5 blights defeated.
• St. Ydwen's 1st requirement lowered to 200 damage vs. spirits. 2nd requirement lowered to 10 vessels defeated.

~balance~

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Oh by the way, you guys remember the whole drama with removed poem?

There's a bit of a jab in that whole nonsense in White March, I won't post more because SJW drama queens are probably lurking spoilers.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

Was there a final boss in the battery that I have missed? I didn't fight nobody at the end? Maybe because I have chosen the pacifist side?

It looks like there is http://www.gamingenthusiast.net/review/pillars-of-eternity-the-white-march-part-1-review/

This is great! This is how the final fight of the main campaign should have been.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

Is there a boss to fight in Durgan's Battery? Sorry I wanted to quote Starwars

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

It seems a boss is only in Cragholdt.

 

[LizardWizard]

Party AI still needs work. Really annoying when a Barb uses barbic blow before casting frenzy, which of course she usually uses 5 seconds before the fight is over.

 

[Bubbles]

WM is currently at 81 on metacritic, and the most positive review warns people of being "bummed out" by the episodic release schedule

 

[Lhynn]

I played PoE into Act 2 and got bored by the combat. Has this expansion actually made anyone change their mind about the combat difficulty in the base game ?

The problem isnt the combat difficulty. Everyone refuses to acknowledge this, but difficulty simply doesnt matter when the base system used is complete crap.

 

[Bubbles]

We found an issue with interrupts granting spell casts to spellcasters if they were in the middle of casting a spell. We will put another beta out once we fix the problem. Will probably be tomorrow's build.

I'm starting to think that PoE's systems might be too complex for Obsidian's QA capabilities.

 

[GrapeJam]

So anyone can give a general impression on the expansion? Story, encounter design?

 

[Bubbles]

Wait for the White March EE.

 

[GrapeJam]

Sure.

Story: Sparse. Devil and Zahua are interesting enough and not written as boringly as most of the base game companions. Plot isn't there, you get into the battery, activate the white forge, and win. Plot is implied after this, so likely part 2 will be more story centric. Whee.

Encounters: Tons of boring ones. A few novel and interesting ones which I really loved. But a lot of just boring fucking clumps of enemies. Music is great. Environment are still as good as ever. Hidden dragon boss is kind of shit, same bullshit as the Adra dragon (try to paralyze it and spam paralysis scrolls until you win/are bored).

Thanks

Well, I play this kind of game mostly for the story (more of a Turn-based/Action RPG guys, hate RTwP), so the lacks of story is really a bummer, trash mobs I won't mind thought.

 

[Jedi Exile]

Hidden dragon boss is kind of shit, same bullshit as the Adra dragon (try to paralyze it and spam paralysis scrolls until you win/are bored).

You don't have to fight it, right?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

You don't have to fight it, right?

No, its optional encounter in a small side-quest.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Sure.

Story: Sparse. Devil and Zahua are interesting enough and not written as boringly as most of the base game companions. Plot isn't there, you get into the battery, activate the white forge, and win. Plot is implied after this, so likely part 2 will be more story centric. Whee.

Encounters: Tons of boring ones. A few novel and interesting ones which I really loved. But a lot of just boring fucking clumps of enemies. Music is great. Environment are still as good as ever. Hidden dragon boss is kind of shit, same bullshit as the Adra dragon (try to paralyze it and spam paralysis scrolls until you win/are bored).

Yeah, that'd be about my assessment as well. Its a solid addition to the base game, but nothing remarkable. The plot is there, but its very straightforward, they tell you to go to the battery and this is what you do. Although I kind of like it in comparision to how convoluted the main plot was in original campaign. Otherwise there's some interesting side quets and bits of information here and there, but its nothing that you will actually remember a year after playing. The combat is noticeably better over the main campagin, but still plenty of space for improvement.

 

[Jedi Exile]

No, the fight is optional. That being said, being optional is not in any way shape or form an excuse for being a complete and utter piece of shit.

That's why I don't kill dragons - reasoning with them is more fun.