Game News Pillars of Eternity II Fig Update #60: Patch 4.1 - Turn-Based Mode Beta

[Infinitron]

Tags: Josh Sawyer; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

As promised, Obsidian have released Patch 4.1 for Pillars of Eternity II, the principal component of which is a turn-based combat mode, currently in beta. The full patch notes are available here. You've already seen the video included in the new Fig update, so I'll post some screenshots instead:

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According to the update, Deadfire's development team is now "much smaller", and they plan to freeze the game's code at some point after February in anticipation of the console release. It sounds like development is finally coming to an end, yet there have been some indications that there might still be more DLC content on the way. I guess we'll see.

 

[Grotesque]

Will be there a Pillars of Eternity III ?

 

[UnknownBro]

After such an artistic and financial success? Of course. :wink: :wink:

 

[Safav Hamon]

Pillars 3 is already in development as a AAA Skyrim clone

 

[Kev Inkline]

A tangential side remark, the game looks absolutely beautiful, albeit being on the verge of flirting a bit too much with animu aesthetics. Nice, still.

 

[Kruno]

Guess how long it takes between turns here?

 

[Nano]

4.1? You would think a brand new turn-based mode would warrant the jump to 5.0. Developers are weird when it comes to versioning.

 

[luj1]

A tangential side remark, the game looks absolutely beautiful,...

Would've been kinda stupid if it didn't, since they (non-tangentially) shifted focus to eye candy with the sequel. You could tell that early on, because every development update was literally about cape physics, exploding barrels, pet parrots or magic effects.

They know their audience well, I'll give them that.

 

[Roguey]

4.1? You would think a brand new turn-based mode would warrant the jump to 5.0. Developers are weird when it comes to versioning.

It's just a beta. Perhaps the code freeze Pillars will be 5.0.

 

[thekdawg21]

Enjoying the turn based combat far more than rtwp. There are some buffs on enemies I'd never have even seen before. Remains to be seen if it holds up through an entire game though.

 

[Kev Inkline]

For someone who's not even started with poe2, which mode would you recommend?

In before play kingmaker instead - yes yes - I've bought that as well.

 

[hexer]

Guess how long it takes between turns here?

Reminds me of good old days when you would start a fight in New Reno ,
waiting a whole minute between rounds because you roused up every mobster, pimp and prostitute in town

 

[Agesilaus]

Enjoying the turn based combat far more than rtwp. There are some buffs on enemies I'd never have even seen before. Remains to be seen if it holds up through an entire game though.

Are the trash-mobs ruining things, in terms of balance and having to stop and go turn-based for meaningless fights? I love turn based combat, but I cannot stand having to put everything on hold while I fight trash mob number 1,075, where I cast the same buff and click attack until the creature dies.

 

[CyberWhale]

For someone who's not even started with poe2, which mode would you recommend?

As someone who's not even started with poe2, I would recommend turn-based mode.

 

[Kruno]

Enjoying the turn based combat far more than rtwp. There are some buffs on enemies I'd never have even seen before. Remains to be seen if it holds up through an entire game though.

Are the trash-mobs ruining things, in terms of balance and having to stop and go turn-based for meaningless fights? I love turn based combat, but I cannot stand having to put everything on hold while I fight trash mob number 1,075, where I cast the same buff and click attack until the creature dies.

They need to speed up animation by a ton, but it is far better than I thought it would be. You can enjoy the game now in TB, with the exception of 2-3 encounters where you will be waiting a minute between rounds.

 

[Dr Schultz]

Enjoying the turn based combat far more than rtwp. There are some buffs on enemies I'd never have even seen before. Remains to be seen if it holds up through an entire game though.

Are the trash-mobs ruining things, in terms of balance and having to stop and go turn-based for meaningless fights? I love turn based combat, but I cannot stand having to put everything on hold while I fight trash mob number 1,075, where I cast the same buff and click attack until the creature dies.

They need to speed up animation by a ton, but it is far better than I thought it would be. You can enjoy the game now in TB, with the exception of 2-3 encounters where you will be waiting a minute between rounds.

Do you mean even with the fast mode active?

 

[Lady_Error]

As someone who finished all the content before the endgame and still has the three DLC's to go through, I'll stick with RTwP for now, instead of starting a new game for TB.

 

[Kruno]

Enjoying the turn based combat far more than rtwp. There are some buffs on enemies I'd never have even seen before. Remains to be seen if it holds up through an entire game though.

Are the trash-mobs ruining things, in terms of balance and having to stop and go turn-based for meaningless fights? I love turn based combat, but I cannot stand having to put everything on hold while I fight trash mob number 1,075, where I cast the same buff and click attack until the creature dies.

They need to speed up animation by a ton, but it is far better than I thought it would be. You can enjoy the game now in TB, with the exception of 2-3 encounters where you will be waiting a minute between rounds.

Do you mean even with the fast mode active?

There is no fast mode in the TB mode battles.

 

[Dr Schultz]

There is no fast mode in the TB mode battles.

As far as I know, there is. Basically any video about the tb mode on youtube is sped up and Mr Sawyer explicitly confired it on Tumblr. I'm talking about the the speed slider. It works for the combat animations in TB mode as it does in RT... Still not enough?

 

[Kruno]

Ahh yes, the green button on the red slider. It is saying "Fast Mode" on my screen. No where near fast enough, especially when fighting against ships.

A discussion on the topic:
https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/108122-its-fun-but-takes-too-long/

Any turn based game needs the option to disable animation or to have its encounters balanced for it.

 

[thekdawg21]

Are the trash-mobs ruining things, in terms of balance and having to stop and go turn-based for meaningless fights? I love turn based combat, but I cannot stand having to put everything on hold while I fight trash mob number 1,075, where I cast the same buff and click attack until the creature dies.

All of the flaws remain from the games combat system before turn based was added but I am finding some small added value in spells and consumables I would not have even thought of using before. Such as explosives and spells that I wouldn't dare try targeting while the enemies were moving in real time. Combat is still a measure of your party's full power vs the foe every fight so strategy largely becomes repetition of you hammering off your most powerful abilities in order but now you have more time to refine your strategy I suppose? I have more patience for trash mobs than most, so I'm still enjoying it far more than the RTwP mode.

 

[Dr Schultz]

Ahh yes, the green button on the red slider. It is saying "Fast Mode" on my screen. No where near fast enough, especially when fighting against ships.

A discussion on the topic:
https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/108122-its-fun-but-takes-too-long/

Any turn based game needs the option to disable animation or to have its encounters balanced for it.

I not 100% in agreement. I mean, I get that sometimes a skip animation option is an unavoidalle necessity, but as a rule I tend to prefer design choices that reduce the downtime without cutting anything: a damage/health ratio that makes the combat really lethal, a simultaneous moviment option for groups of enemies, a relatively small number of characters involved in combat. Stuff lIke that...

 

[Junmarko]

Obsidian needs to seriously do something about the UI - negotiate with the modder behind Enhanced User Interface Mod, to have it implemented permanently and work from there or at least work on similar improvements themselves.

A lot of the minor tweaks from that mod should be in the vanilla game by now.

 

[Bohr]

Obsidian needs to seriously do something about the UI - negotiate with the modder behind Enhanced User Interface Mod, to have it implemented permanently and work from there or at least work on similar improvements themselves.

Perhaps they can call in Sea now they're all part of MS