Game News Pillars of Eternity II Fig Update #61: Patch 5.0

[Infinitron]

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

It took Obsidian a lot longer than expected to finalize the turn-based mode for Pillars of Eternity II. Turns out that's not the only thing they were working on. Today is the one year anniversary of the game's release, an appropriate date for its last major update. In addition to the finalized turn-based mode and new ship combat UI, Patch 5.0 includes substantial content changes - namely, additional dialogue with Eothas and Woedica written to address criticisms of the game's storyline, and a relocation of certain quest items to make the Anarchist path longer and more challenging. But for Josh Sawyer the highlight of Patch 5.0 is The Ultimate Challenge, a 12th god challenge mode that enables all eleven existing god challenges plus Trial of Iron, Path of the Damned, Expert Mode, upwards level scaling, and you have to play solo. The first twelve players who manage to complete the game (including all major enemies and boss battles) under these restrictions will have their names immortalized on a plaque in Obsidian's lobby. You can learn more about all of this in the new Fig update and its accompanying video:

Patch 5.0 Highlights

There are a host of bug fixes in the 5.0 update that you can read on our forums, but here are some of the highlights for you:

• New Ship UI
  • An update to the UI has been implemented that will come up any time you engage with a ship on the seas that brings a more elegant way to perform ship-to-ship encounters.
• Turn-Based Mode Out of Beta
  • Thanks to feedback from the community, we have made a lot of changes to turn-based mode to account for bugs and balance fixes and it is now in full release with the 5.0 patch.
• New Story Content Added
  • After listening to feedback on the critical path of the game when it came to reactivity with Woedica and Eothas, so we’ve decided to go in and write new lines and get them recorded by the original actors to add more to that aspect of the game.
• Anarchist Path Adjustments
  • Some critical path items have been moved out of Neketaka to other locations in the Deadfire to address the difficulty and length that the game had if choosing to not side with a faction at Ondra’s Mortar.
• The Ultimate
  • The final God Challenge will be live with the 5.0 patch. This challenge, “The Ultimate” will turn on all other God Challenges, Trial of Iron, Path of the Damned, and Solo mode.

So I guess this is the end of Pillars of Eternity II, although it wouldn't surprise me if there are a few more minor updates leading up to the console release later this year. What next for Josh Sawyer and everybody else at Obsidian who isn't working on The Outer Worlds? It might be some time before we find out.

 

[saeci]

Thanks for another uninteresting piece.

 

[Tavernking]

Imagine being a potential investor walking into Obsidian's Lobby and you see a plaque with the names:

DJ_BUSTANUT
CuntRobber69
OprahDid911
Weedlord Bonerhitler
Adolf Tittler
Poopfeast420
boner4urMom
Works At Gay Bar
INoScopedJFK
shesaidshe19
Dildo Gaggins
Urethra Franklin

 

[aratuk]

Probs no more potential investors since they sold the company, but point taken.



So all the expansions are out, and TB mode is done? I guess I'll give it a shot, now.

 

[Infinitron]

Imagine being a potential investor walking into Obsidian's Lobby and you see a plaque with the names:

DJ_BUSTANUT
CuntRobber69
OprahDid911
Weedlord Bonerhitler
Adolf Tittler
Poopfeast420
boner4urMom
Works At Gay Bar
INoScopedJFK
shesaidshe19
Dildo Gaggins
Urethra Franklin

 

[flushfire]

Say what you will about PoE2 (much of the game felt banal to me too) but adding TB and actually recording new content for the MQ after release, aside from all the other additional features, that's dedication I can respect.

 

[Zakhad]

Sawyer, approving a final release:

Spoiler

 

[HoboForEternity]

Pillars of Eternity 2: deadfire is a good game. it has problem but it was good even on release. salute to them keeping this supported for a while

 

[Safav Hamon]

Oh no, the stat changes are horrible!

 

[aris]

Nice! I was just replaying it. Turn based mode was actually surpisingly good even in beta.

 

[Safav Hamon]

Paul Kirsch on the new story content

After Deadfire's launch and public reception, leadership and the writing team closely scrutinized some of the narrative issues which could have presented better or required some clarification. We distilled the most prevalent issues down to a couple of core factors: a lack of clarity regarding the metaphysics of Eora, and missing connectivity between Deadfire's "god plot" and "faction plot," for lack of a better term

Shortly before launching The Forgotten Sanctum, those of us still attached to the project had some availability to address these concerns. A handful of developers pooled their efforts to execute on a plan that seeks to address these story problems through modestly-scoped, unobtrusive changes to the core game experience. What follows behind the Spoiler gate is a broad outline of the solutions we pursued. We hope you enjoy them. Thanks for reading, and thanks for playing!

Spoiler

[*]Upon leaving Neketaka for the first time, a mysterious figure will deliver a book to the player.
[*]The player may open and interact with the book at any time.
[*]Doing so initiates a conversation with Woedica through our Scripted Interaction interface.
[*]She and the Watcher can discuss the motives of the gods, the mechanics of reincarnation, and why the Watcher and factions matter on a grander scale than the player might otherwise assume.
[*]Woedica responds to a number of player choices, world events, and quest states. This means that the book can be consulted a number of times in a given playthrough to unlock new conversation branches.
[*]Woedica responds to players who empowered her in PoE1 and Steel Garrote / Priest of Woedica players.
[*]Players who have confided in Woedica will find the god conversation on Ukaizo expanded to include an extra one-on-one with Woedica.
[*]Eothas' Ukaizo conversation has been expanded to include some faction-related discussion.
[*]Steel Garrote / Priest of Woedica players have extra dialogue options in Oathbinder's Sanctum.
[*]The intro / outro of a few original god conversations have been shortened.

Fixes to turn based combat

• Afflictions now work as expected for immunities, resistance, and suppression.
• Players should no longer be experiencing low frame rates due to multiple NPC's being on screen at once.
• Terrified party members who cannot move will now pass their turn correctly.
• Effect durations in breakdown tooltips are now displayed in Rounds when turn-based mode is enabled.
• Caltrops traps will no longer cause the turn-based combat to become stuck in certain cases.
• Pulsing spells are now displayed throughout their entire duration in the turn-based mode.
• Resisted Afflictions will no longer progress in real time in turn-based mode.
• Turn-based Combat Start banner behaves properly on ultra-widescreen resolutions.
• Party AI can no longer continue to use quick items with no charges left.
• Firearms users that act last in a round will no longer be incorrectly placed first in the next round.
• Creature summoned with Berath's Throwing Bones is now correctly queued in turn order in turn-based mode.
• Attack abilities will now apply their effects to child attacks such as AOEs in addition to the character's primary weapon attack.
• Characters with unused engagements will now engage enemies that move in range even if they are not the primary target.
• The description of Berath's Challenge now describes the effects in turn-based mode.
• Berath's Challenge will now show an effect icon and timer on unconscious party members.
• Wall spells now apply their effects on the turns of the characters affected by them.
• Imp Tricksters will no longer become stuck when attempting to use certain abilities in turn-based mode.
• Characters using Whispers of the Wind in turn-based mode will no longer remaining invisible until their next turn.
• Beam spells now deal the same damage per second in turn-based mode as they do in Real-Time with Pause.
• Turn-based movement indicator will correctly show the unreachable segments when targeting an enemy.
• Turn-based movement indicator will show a better estimate of the character's final position when using ranged attacks.
• Turn-based movement indicator will now be more accurate when attempting to move through a narrow space between multiple enemies.
• Invisible characters will no longer block movement.
• The player can no longer briefly switch weapon sets after hitting with an attack in turn-based mode.
• Cancelling the animation during a full attack no longer prevents Initiative from being set in turn-based mode.
• Creatures summoned with Figurines now appear for the correct number of turns.
• Priest's "Symbol of Eothas" has been adjusted to turn-based mode.
• Ability tooltips will clearly show "Not Your Turn" when it isn't the selected character's turn.
• Modal abilities cannot be toggled unless it's the caster's turn.
• With Berath's Challenge enabled in turn-based mode, enemies will never exit the turn order.
• Consuming drugs properly sets the character's initiative in turn-based mode.
• Priest's "Blessing of Wael" has been adjusted to turn-based mode.
• Camera in turn-based mode no longer moves to dead enemies between turns.
• Blade Turning now ends early if the monk moves.
• Monk's "Whispers of the Wind" ability now correctly uses an action point in turn-based mode.
• Characters that are naturally neutral to the player will no longer drop out of turn-based combat when they are all charmed.
• Brilliant Tactician's effects will work correctly when there are multiple Tacticians in the party.
• Fixed the flanked condition rarely persisting after combat ends.
• The Miss glossary entry now has the correct threshold value in turn-based mode.
• The End Game Slides "Continue" button will no longer permanently disappear.
• In turn-based mode, pulsing AoEs no longer pulse in real-time when the caster dies.
• Cost numbers on the ability bar will no longer occasionally show when the ability bar is hidden.
• Combats in turn-based mode will more reliably pull nearby enemies.
• Resurrection's "Cannot Die" effect is now applied for correct amount of turns in turn-based mode.
• Enemies will no longer lock up when attempting to target destructibles with certain attacks in turn-based mode.
• Auras are now updated in real time in turn-based mode.
• Passive abilities will no longer show "Action Type: Free" in the ability tree.
• Immobile creatures will now switch to ranged weapons if necessary in turn-based combat.
• Barks of the enemy ships' captains are properly assigned to them instead of to the Watcher.
• Camera in turn-based mode with Hylea's Challenge enabled no longer moves away from party.
• Option to disable camera centering on active character in turn-based mode has been added to the game.
• Characters will play a visual-only flinch animation when they are bumped by allies.
• Relentless Storm in turn-based mode will now Daze by default, and its Daze attacks that critically hit will upgrade to Stuns.
• Gaze of Adragan has had it second redundant defense roll removed.
• "Llengrath's Safeguard" no longer can be cast out of combat.
• Combat Attack Results tutorial has been updated to reflect new Graze range.
• Mortification of the Soul is a free action in turn-based mode.

 

[aris]

Is there any point with dexterity in turn based mode? Except for initiative, it does not seem to affect much.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

So a good stat to "cheat" and test if it does anything? Did the POE world get a tabletop PnP game? It sort of reminds me of 3e or pathfinder in a way. I never jumped on the band-wagon. Damn I sure thought about it though.

 

[hexer]

Well, I'll be damned! I know some of us players complained about storytelling but never actually expected it to be fixed!
A very cool move by the devs! Will play again!

 

[Safav Hamon]

Is there any point with dexterity in turn based mode? Except for initiative, it does not seem to affect much.

Dexterity affects initiative, casting speed, and reflex saves. A lot of players call it a dump stat, but I disagree.

Did the POE world get a tabletop PnP game? It sort of reminds me of 3e or pathfinder in a way. I never jumped on the band-wagon.

It was just published today. You can download it here (it's 120 pages)

https://eternity.obsidian.net/

Well, I'll be damned! I know some of us players complained about storytelling but never actually expected it to be fixed!
A very cool move by the devs! Will play again!

They already fixed one of the major criticisms in patch 4.0 by...

Spoiler

letting you kill Eothas

 

[Dr Schultz]

Any feedback about the final TB mode? Finished the game once, vanilla version. Is it worth another playthrough?

 

[Kruno]

Thanks for another uninteresting piece.

FUCK YOU!

 

[Diggfinger]

looks cool! Would like to play this, but havent started PoE 1 yet. One day...
Anyway, I expect at least 6 Codex brothers to be induced into the Obsidian Wall of Fame soon...

Impressive how Obsidian is able to continue investing in this game, especially since sales apparently were not that good? (below 500K units?).

 

[Lyre Mors]

Any feedback about the final TB mode? Finished the game once, vanilla version. Is it worth another playthrough?

If you are feeling the urge, and want to do a playthrough with the DLC anyway, I would say it's definitely worth at least trying on turn-based mode. You could always start a new game, try the first island out with turn-based, then decide if you wanted to go further from there.

I personally really enjoy the TB system, particularly with PotD and Woedica's Challenge enabled, which turns all per-encounter spells and abilities into per-rest and removes health regeneration when out of combat. The TB is a bit rough around the edges, and would have definitely benefited from being action point based rather than movement -> attack/ability/consumable based. But the thing is, it's still fun, and it's still an improvement over the RtwP according to my personal preferences. Encounters, contrary to the predictions of many around here, work well in TB mode despite being initially designed with RtwP in mind. And for me, they've simply been more fun and engaging.

Say what you will about PoE II, but they've worked a lot past its official release to add a lot of nice things that take into consideration player feedback. I had fun with it and liked it at release, but these implementations and improvements really make the game shine now.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Rather glad i waited. I did the same thing with ultima 7 and diablo 2; waited to see if additional content. And woot to pnp!

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Codex review when?

 

[toro]

Is it finally the end of pillars newsposts

We all hope ...

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

is this game good? I really did not enjoy PoE1 mostly because the system they designed. If it had been D&D I would have enjoyed it. Does turn based make it better? Anybody else who did not enjoy the game due to how the rules were designed but now finds it enjoyable? The game looks visually appealing and I enjoyed sawyers icewind dale games..but could not get into PoE1.....opinions?

 

[Kruno]

is this game good? I really did not enjoy PoE1 mostly because the system they designed. If it had been D&D I would have enjoyed it. Does turn based make it better? Anybody else who did not enjoy the game due to how the rules were designed but now finds it enjoyable? The game looks visually appealing and I enjoyed sawyers icewind dale games..but could not get into PoE1.....opinions?

It is literally the best game you will ever play in your entire life!

 

[Falksi]

Absolutely massive kudos for a massively inclining move.