Game News Pillars of Eternity II Fig Update #54: New Challenges Approach

[Infinitron]

Tags: Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

According to Obsidian's content roadmap, this month Pillars of Eternity II is scheduled to receive a major patch adding, among other things, two new God Challenge modes. The latest Fig update has the details on the new modes, which are more elaborate than the ones released with Patch 2.0 earlier this month. There's also some information about the Mega-Boss that will be added to the game next month, and a changelog for the minor patch that Obsidian released alongside the update. I quote:

We hope that those of you who have journeyed to Harbingers' Watch have enjoyed your stay (and according to the Steam reviews, you have!), but there is still plenty more to come in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. In the timeline that we shared with you in Update 53, you may have noticed that this month will see the release of Abydon and Skaen's God Challenges. Take a look below for descriptions of those challenges, what's new in Hotfix Patch 2.0.1, and a sneak peek of what's to come!

Challenge Yourself

• Abydon - The god of the forge is ready to challenge you with forged items you carry. The more you use weapons and armor, the more they will wear down and become "Damaged". This modifier will make them progressively worse and eventually destroy them unless the mods are removed through Enchantments. Choose the items you will wear into battle wisely!
• Skaen - With Skaen's challenge, when indoors or at night, fog of war encroaches more. Torches and lanterns can partially offset the additional fog of war, but only a little.

We look forward to seeing what you talented Watchers are able to do with these challenges enabled. Remember, if you're streaming these challenges, let us know by tagging us on Twitter so we can go and hang out with you!

That's One Mega Boss

Next month we'll be bringing our first Mega Boss to Deadfire. As we've said in some interviews recently, the Mega Bosses are end game challenges that you can take on in the Deadfire and are meant to test your party's mettle. These fights are meant to be for high level parties, so don't expect to be able to tackle them right when you get the Defiant out on the seas of the archipelago. We'll have more information on who the first Mega Boss will be in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Patch 2.0.1

Today we've released a patch that fixes some of the bigger issues some players have had since the launch of "Beast of Winter." Our forums have the full patch notes, but some of the highlights are:

• Retrained party members will no longer gain Knock Down, Constant Recovery, Battle Axe Proficiency, or Mace Proficiency when they should not.
• The autosave feature works as intended after jumping into the pit in the Beast of Winter DLC and allows for progression.
• Party members will no longer disappear near the portal in Sunken Crown.
• Party members stay together when using the portal in Sunken Crown when it's flooded.

As always, we want to continue to work with you all to help make Deadfire an even better game. If there are issues you come across, let us know through our Support Portal and on our forums. We'll assist you as soon as we can!​

Those of you who have been following Pillars of Eternity since the days when it was still called Project Eternity might find the Abydon challenge mode rather familiar. It took five years, but in the end Tim Cain won!

 

[ArchAngel]

The biggest challenge does approach. It is called Pathfinder: Kingmaker and it will utterly destroy them.

 

[set]

I looked at Steam 'Top Selling' under RPGs and Deadfire comes in at...page FOUR (the bottom of it, too). There are some pretty ANCIENT games performing better if I can take that at face value (assuming I can). rip Obdiaian

 

[PatataFamilia]

I looked at Steam 'Top Selling' under RPGs and Deadfire comes in at...page FOUR (the bottom of it, too). There are some pretty ANCIENT games performing better if I can take that at face value (assuming I can). rip Obdiaian

Right now it's at the second page. And the list is more a statement on the rpg market in general, given that the first page is: Monster Hunter, Graveyard Keeper, MH: Deluxe, Stardew Valley, Shadow of Mordor, Payday II, and D:OS II. After that, we have Black Desert Online, the Phantom Doctrine, Elder Scrolls online, Not Tonight, Skyrim, Darkwood, Kingdom Come, and Fallout 4.

https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/RPG/#p=0&tab=TopSellers

One crpg on the top selling rpg page is pretty grim. Four of the games don't even have rpg in the most common player tags.

 

[MrMarbles]

All this noise with patches, expansions and challenges. It's like saying "Hey this concert you paid for is going to be trash but don't worry we'll release videos of it later on facebook and send you some great live soundtracks". Just have a vision of a game, make it, sell it and be done with it.

 

[skyst]

The state of Deadfire is a lot more enjoyable now than it was at launch now that the hardest difficulties have been balanced better.

 

[set]

The state of Deadfire is a lot more enjoyable now than it was at launch now that the hardest difficulties have been balanced better.

Maybe I'll go back to it someday... I think I got 25% through and forgot about it.

 

[Lady_Error]

Yeah, the late game was definitely missing some challenges. It's good that they recognized this.

 

[Septaryeth]

Is there an expected date when PoE II will release all its DLC and patches and be in the same state as PoE version 3.0?

No, I'm not asking this sarcastically.

I didn't leave any save before jumping down that damn hole, and when I bought the White March I was too lazy to go through the base game again.
I would like to play the game in one sitting so at least I'll get some of my money's worth.

 

[Infinitron]

Is there an expected date when PoE II will release all its DLC and patches and be in the same state as PoE version 3.0?

No, I'm not asking this sarcastically.

I didn't leave any save before jumping down that damn hole, and when I bought the White March I was too lazy to go through the base game again.
I would like to play the game in one sitting so at least I'll get some of my money's worth.

The content roadmap mentioned in OP:

(notice the thin lines)

 

[Lady_Error]

I didn't leave any save before jumping down that damn hole, and when I bought the White March I was too lazy to go through the base game again.

There is a similar thing in Deadfire where you come to a point in the late game from which there is no coming back. The game tells you so as well.

So you can play most of the game (probably around 80%) and then wait for the DLC's before you finish it.

 

[Neanderthal]

Oh great more gods.

 

[Sergiu64]

The state of Deadfire is a lot more enjoyable now than it was at launch now that the hardest difficulties have been balanced better.

How have they been balanced?

I'm surprised there's such a demand for these challenges - yeah lower difficulties are a joke, but what's so fun about spending 5+ hours grinding through really difficult battles only to get run over by bunch of low level mooks and being forced to start over?

Seems like they're doing a lot of work to cater to a very small group.

 

[tindrli]

Is there an expected date when PoE II will release all its DLC and patches and be in the same state as PoE version 3.0?

No, I'm not asking this sarcastically.

I didn't leave any save before jumping down that damn hole, and when I bought the White March I was too lazy to go through the base game again.
I would like to play the game in one sitting so at least I'll get some of my money's worth.

The content roadmap mentioned in OP:

(notice the thin lines)

FUCK!!!! and i thought that i would play it this month

 

[ArchAngel]

The state of Deadfire is a lot more enjoyable now than it was at launch now that the hardest difficulties have been balanced better.

How have they been balanced?

I'm surprised there's such a demand for these challenges - yeah lower difficulties are a joke, but what's so fun about spending 5+ hours grinding through really difficult battles only to get run over by bunch of low level mooks and being forced to start over?

Seems like they're doing a lot of work to cater to a very small group.

Small but loud.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

The state of Deadfire is a lot more enjoyable now than it was at launch now that the hardest difficulties have been balanced better.

How have they been balanced?

I'm surprised there's such a demand for these challenges - yeah lower difficulties are a joke, but what's so fun about spending 5+ hours grinding through really difficult battles only to get run over by bunch of low level mooks and being forced to start over?

Seems like they're doing a lot of work to cater to a very small group.

It was causing a lot of negative steam reviews with high upvote counts. Got to keep that sort of thing under control.

 

[skyst]

The state of Deadfire is a lot more enjoyable now than it was at launch now that the hardest difficulties have been balanced better.

How have they been balanced?

I'm surprised there's such a demand for these challenges - yeah lower difficulties are a joke, but what's so fun about spending 5+ hours grinding through really difficult battles only to get run over by bunch of low level mooks and being forced to start over?

Seems like they're doing a lot of work to cater to a very small group.

The challenge adds longevity to the game through experimentation and replayability. There are plenty of items with unique, sometimes build-defining effects that synergize with various classes and talents. Its similar to a reason that people played Diablo 2 for a million years. Also, some people play these games for challenging encounters and party building, not to just click through a story.

All that said, I finished the Beast of Winter and while the game is probably harder through level 15 or so, everything after that on the hardest difficulty with upward level scaling is still a joke, sadly. Even worse, the DLC encounters, while kind of tricky, have an irritating tendency to spawn enemies in or behind your ranks. This gave me horrible Dragon Age 2 flashbacks. Even with a shield and defensive spells, I'd often just let my wizard die. The zones, while conceptually cool are boring to explore and the story is more unrelatable god drivel.

Deadfire really peaks early at the first big town and never exceeds being "good", even with the first real DLC.

 

[Lady_Error]

Deadfire really peaks early at the first big town and never exceeds being "good"

That's some harsh criticism right there.

 

[Sergiu64]

Well, as always the challenge is overly difficult when you're level one - the ability and equipment customization options are limited. And the challenge becomes increasingly trivial once the players are given the chance to optimise their characters a bit.

Feels like for these challenges it might have been more fun if they started the game in Neketaka at level 6 with some decent equipment.

 

[Lady_Error]

The first island isn't really that hard... And I'd say that the challenges stay decent until at least Level 10-12.