Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Infinitron]

Obsidian forums poster complains that tank & spank no longer works: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/81290-so-that-was-terrible/

Stronghold rest buffs have been increased and now last for three rests: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/81313-stronghold-improvements-in-20white-march/

 

[Kruno]

Your tanks are now peelers. I think some people are making it out to be worse than it is. Two melee char's peel enough for my other chars (AI controlled) to demolish strays.

Other changes, some auras/stances have to be set manually. The AI will not touch things like "Guardian Stance". This is a good thing. I have played enough with the AI settings to know you have to be careful what you set. It isn't hard, but requires a bit of experience.

I fixed the text blur issue. I simply opened GeDoSaTo and set the in game res. to 5K. It is downsampled to 1080p.


PS: The pathfinding is ARSE! The priest got himself killed because he was trying to path through a blocked doorway and ended up on the other end of the level killed by a spider. My mage had the same issue, but was starring at a wall.

 

[prodigydancer]

PS: The pathfinding is ARSE! The priest got himself killed because he was trying to path through a blocked doorway and ended up on the other end of the level killed by a spider. My mage had the same issue, but was starring at a wall.

Can't completely rely on pathfinding - you need to micromanage. How is it in general though? Any improvements? Or do characters still pick some long way around obstacles even when a shorter path is available and not blocked?

 

[Tigranes]

I won't have my desktop until next week. Can someone comment on enemy AI? Preferably someone who's not using the "Play The Game For Me" button, in which case it'd be harder to tell and everything is easier?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Might want to go to the Obsidian forums and complain about it, because I'm not seeing many similar complaints right now: http://forums.obsidian.net/forum/104-pillars-of-eternity-technical-support-spoiler-warning/

I replied to a thread from a few months ago. Looks like FPS drops predate this patch. Weird how I didn't have the issue before.

Things that have changed - Windows 10, new (better) graphics card

 

[Shadenuat]

Obsidian forums poster complains that tank & spank no longer works

Spellcasters in PoE are not protected as well as in IE, and running kills the tempo of IE combat, so I'm not surprised that smarter AI would make people more frustrated than anything. Perhaps it's time to tweak back row protective abilities or combat speed now.

 

[Infinitron]

Spellcasters in PoE are not protected as well as in IE

I've seen people making this statement before and it confuses me. Wizards in AD&D couldn't wear armor, and their lower base Deflection score in PoE is just the equivalent of that in the new system. I remember them being killed just as quickly in IE if ambushed.

Anyway, an upgraded Arcane Veil plus priest buffs is already good enough protection. Also, you can use your Grimoire Slam to bat enemies away and run.

As for the speed, I don't have a problem with it and I suspect it's not actually that different from the IE speed (except BG1's original slow-walking). But there is slo-mo.

 

[Roguey]

Why would it take more time to release than this part did?

Holidays.

 

[prodigydancer]

Windows 10

So how does it feel when you live in a walled garden under constant surveillance?

 

[Rake]

I've seen people making this statement before and it confuses me. Wizards in AD&D couldn't wear armor, and their lower base Deflection score in PoE is just the equivalent of that in the new system. I remember them being killed just as quickly in IE if ambushed.

Stoneskin,Protection from magical/normal Weapons, mantles. Even if ambushed most of these have intstant casting.
Priests could wear heavy armor, and they had their own defensive buffs as well.

 

[prodigydancer]

Stoneskin,Protection from magical/normal Weapons, mantles. Even if ambushed most of these have intstant casting.
Priests could wear heavy armor, and they had their own defensive buffs as well.

IIRC Stoneskin wasn't implemented in BG/TotSC. What you could cast was Mirror Image, Armor/Shield, Blur and PfNM. Not too shabby, but mages certainly weren't invincible roflstompers. Not until BG2.

 

[Bonerbill]

Spellcasters in PoE are not protected as well as in IE.

If your spellcasters are not protected well, then it's your own fault. There are loads of defensive spells in the game, and there is nothing wrong with a wizard wearing armor. My current melee offtank wizard usually ends up being the most durable character in my party while still doing a decent amount of damage.

 

[Fairfax]

Expansion still in Top 5 on Steam, base game at #2. Maybe tehre were



Why would it take more time to release than this part did?

Hmmm...that's a fairly quick drop. Not a good sign.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

So how does it feel when you live in a walled garden under constant surveillance?

Feels awesome!

 

[Infinitron]

Hmmm...that's a fairly quick drop. Not a good sign.

It's a DLC. I was half-expecting it to fall off the charts within hours like Dragonfall did. It's probably doing okay.

 

[Fairfax]

It's a DLC. I was half-expecting it to fall off the charts within hours like Dragonfall did. It's probably doing okay.

Content-wise, the two parts are going to be much more than just DLC. I still think it was a mistake to release them as such, no matter what Paradox research says. It's odd that Obsidian listened to them in the first place, considering how notorious they are for releasing tons of small, pointless and shitty DLC for every good one. They're going to make most of their money during the 2016 summer sale, when there should be a pack with both parts and the game, but it'll be much cheaper at that point and their profits will suffer for it.

I also think they should've designed the expansion as a stand-alone product with a new set of characters. It's not like the new companions have a lot of content anyway. Plus, the White March is already detached from the original campaign's locations, and the content and story there seems to stand on its own.
You mentioned Dragonfall. That's one case that exposed the problem with RPG DLC. Most people in general - including a lot of codexers who know more about their games than the average consumer - have a "save for later, when it's cheap" attitude towards smaller pieces of DLC. Standalone expansions are perceived differently. Dragonfall was a failure as DLC, but the standalone director's cut did extremely well.

 

[Infinitron]

The standalone Director's Cut did not do extremely well. I remember it falling off the charts immediately after it was released, and then a day after that Wasteland 2 came out. We were all sure Harebrained was going to go bankrupt when we saw that, but they pulled through. Which means White March is probably doing fine.

Also, just because you don't like Paradox's DLC strategy doesn't mean that it doesn't work.

 

[Fairfax]

The standalone Director's Cut did not do extremely well. I remember it falling off the charts immediately after it was released, and then a day after that Wasteland 2 came out. We were all sure Harebrained was going to go bankrupt or something when we saw that, but they pulled through. Which means White March is probably doing fine.

454k copies in less than a year looks pretty good to me.

 

[Infinitron]

454k copies in less than a year looks pretty good to me.

No shit, 75% off sales on a $15 game will do that. However, many of its initial owners were people who got it for free because they had the DLC which was released all the way back in February 2014.

 

[Delbaeth]

According to Steamspy owner* (and some indie developpers too) there is currently a massive drop of sales of non AAA games which have a 'huge price' ( > $10).
Maybe, it's the case here too.

Edit:
* his tweet

 

[Fairfax]

No shit, 75% off sales on a $15 game will do that. However, many of its initial owners were people who got it for free because they had the DLC which was released all the way back in February 2014.

The 75% discount came much more recently. My point is that it did much, much better as a standalone product rather than DLC. It was very successful for what it was, and had >50% attach rate compared to the original game, which is very high.

 

[Fairfax]

I wouldn't blame any low performance solely on being DLC, by the way. The reviews, despite being positive in general, paint a (realistic) picture that a lot of people are not very interested in. I've been reading the comments on neogaf, reddit, steam forums, here, obsidian forums, etc and the response has been lukewarm at best. A lot of people didn't really want more combat-heavy content.

 

[Infinitron]

You enjoy sticking to your little narratives, don't you? If you want to talk facts, go ask the Steamspy dude to measure owners of DLC, or at least this particular piece of DLC. He's an FO:NV fan so maybe he'll agree to make an exception for an Obsidian game.

 

[Fairfax]

You enjoy sticking to your little narratives, don't you? If you want to talk facts, go ask the Steamspy dude to measure owners of DLC, or at least this particular piece of DLC. He's an FO:NV fan so maybe he'll agree to make an exception for an Obsidian game.

Uh...my little narrative? HBS said Dragonfall was successful, I take their word for it. As for the white march, nobody knows if it's successful or not, but the impression I got from the numerous forums I've been reading (which is unrelated to sales figures) is my impression indeed. You're welcome to share your own.

 

[Fry]

A lot of people didn't really want more combat-heavy content.

How many of these people actually finished the game?