Pillars of Eternity - Beta Build 480 Released

Odsidian has released the next backer beta update for Pillars of Eternity. The games forum has the change-log with all the information on whats changed in the new build.

Hey, everyone. Backer Beta 480 should be live for all OSes. This is going to be the last update to our backer beta. If you are worried that your feedback and bugs won't have time to be integrated into the game, don't be. We are going to be creating patches for day one and beyond, so any feedback you give now may go into those patches.

I wanted to personally thank you for helping us make Pillars of Eternity a great game. The feedback, bugs, and, sometimes, criticism has been very useful in shaping a game that we think all of our backer will enjoy. We are lucky to have such dedicated fans. Have fun!

More information.

I'm keen to hear comments from those with beta access - this will probably be very close to we get on March 26. Hope to hear that its now very enjoyable

The initial thread seems positive on this patch; anyone here played it ? That means you AZ

I'm playing it, if anyone has any specific questions then fire away.

I played it a bit. Did my usual making classes to face off against Medreth and his goons (it's a group of NPCs right beside where you spawn in the beta, the best place to test stuff).

There was quite a few changes in this new BB and there some that are also missing because it takes a few days to release one (and they had a problem) so we don't get the latest bugfixes in this crunch time period (for example, there was a balance pass earlier this week but it's not in the BB).

They also made a tiny change to pathfinding that ended up in a huge exploits, going by the release notes, that exploit shouldn't be possible so it should be fixed. Outside of that, pathfinding is much better even if it still has its quirks. AI is snappier (i.e. react better, party members and enemies). Outside of not using their class abilities, party members are kind of autonomous (most of the time, I've seen a few quirks there too, especially with ranged characters). Unnoticeable change: memory footprint was greatly reduced.

I need to try two new options that disable some combat related stuff (auto-attacks and stopping on engagement), I'm not sure how they behave but stopping on engagement might solve a tiny problem I have with the AI (aka pit-stop at a nearby enemy when you are asking them to go elsewhere). I also need to try the queuing. There are still a couple of bugs here and there that are pretty obvious, but the rest are under the hood and stuff most people won't even realize are happening.

There was more portraits and apparently more are being touched up (if they don't make it at release they will come with the expac). They are awesome looking. Speaking of art, I think some of the FX was toned down and I find the Wizard's fireball mushroom fire-cloud amusing.

I discovered a few things this build too:
- Ranger pets show up in the party layout re-org window (think TOEE) so you can position it where you want.
- There are scrolls that increase lore for a time, could be handy for some stat checks or using higher level scrolls.
- The Wizard's spell Rolling Flame bounce off walls if it can't go in a straight line for all of the spell length.
- Having a Wizard walk in his own slicken pool means his caused his own downfall.

I play on normal so every opinions is based on that difficulty. I made a Paladin, Monk, Chanter, Druid, Cipher, Wizard, Ranger, Barbarian and Fighter so far. I never take a 6th party member and leave the BB party members as built by the devs. You start at level 4 and max is level 8.

Paladin: I had better success with it than in previous build, yet it doesn't seem to have changed, go figure.

Chanter/Druids: Still the kings of classes. Druids are still overpowered (slightly) and their spiritshift got better (and I know they also got a wildstrike buff but it's not in the BB). Chanter got their best invocation nerfed (too much *sniff*), but their buff/debuff chants still rocks.

Monk: I tried to make a interrupt build monk, it was a failure lol. I wanted him to hit things super-fast with his fist, but I picked the wrong enemy to face-off I think. I haven't tried a "normal" monk yet though.

Cipher: A two-handed weapon with a shirt on and I was surprised by how well he survived melee (no defense buff on).

Fighter: Looking at BB Rogue, I wanted to make something that was hitting as fast as her. So I made a dual wielding Fighter with high Dex and using fast weapons. Then I realized that I was playing a Expertise Fighter (my favorite DnD 3.5 build) and that if I invested in stealth and mechanics it could replace a rogue (without doing as much burst damage though and no in-combat invisibly, nor escape, nor dirty fighting…) but with more defensive potential. Fighters are constant damage while Rogues are burst and debuff.

Wizard: I think they got a few spells with higher damage now, can make nice damage dealers, but they also have nice debuff. I discovered Miasma of Mind-Dumdness (-10 Resolve/Perception/Intelligence for 25 seconds…by what the stats are doing that's -20 deflection for 25 seconds, super awesome against high deflection creatures so your party graze less often…or for doing more crits).

Barbarian: didn't play it long so I don't even remember what happened outside of getting knocked down by a fighter, sight.

Ranger: much improvements, still some stuff to improve, but that class went a long way. I did more content with it than the others. Faced off all the beetles (using mostly weapons and a few suppress affliction to shutdown that poison). Cleared the spider caves (aggroed 10+ of them and the party survived…with two members still standing) and the Ogre.

The Ogre is a level 6 boss fight, my party was level 5. I tried it 3 times with a banged up party (after dealing with all the spiders) and there wasn't enough juice to deal with him and his pets (bears). The best I did is taking him to near-death. See that Ogre two-shot anyone so he is dangerous. I went to the inn to rest (out of supplies, I should have packed my reserve before leaving the village) and fought him fresh. A single downed character. Didn't even cheese the fight much (aka CC is awesome and you can abuse it).

Didn't try a Priest or rogue., BB Priest and BB Rogue do a good enough job. I use BB Priest as a mid-range/melee fighter (despite the crappy health and deflection). Priest would probably fall with the Druid/Chanter though, their Holy Radiance can be upgraded so many ways (debuff, damage, buff, etc). BB Rogue is a good damage dealer, but she is fragile, rogue aren't meant to flank not off-tank (see fighter write-up).

It's amusing to read some of the comments: such and such a feature is THE END OF THE WORLD!!! HOW DARE YOU MAKE A CHANGE WITHOUT CONSULTING US!!!!! Heh.

Yeah, it was reading the PoE forums that made me realise that the constant fan over-analysis during a crowdfunded development was sucking all the joy out of it, for me. Never ask how the sausage was made!

It's all good, though - I hope the free beta-testing helps the devs, but I prefer to wait and judge the finished game when it lands on my desk.

One backer in particular, who does do a lot of video samples and otherwise good work, seems to be living in a delusional world where he is a paid staffer. Some of his comments even make you think that HE thinks that he is Josh Sawyers boss. The closer to release the game gets the more desperate he sounds, as if he's finally realized he won't be getting a job offer from Obsidian.

Maybe there is a future for crowd developed projects and not just funded?

Originally Posted by Melvil
Maybe there is a future for crowd developed projects and not just funded?

In most group projects, the large majority are more than willing to say how the work should be done; very few are willing to do the actual work. Then all you get for your efforts is a lot of grumbling. The projects that do work well usually have good leadership and a dedicated following. I.e. the ones that look like a company.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Yeah, it was reading the PoE forums that made me realise that the constant fan over-analysis during a crowdfunded development was sucking all the joy out of it, for me. Never ask how the sausage was made!

It's all good, though - I hope the free beta-testing helps the devs, but I prefer to wait and judge the finished game when it lands on my desk.

Yeah couldn't agree more . I tend to try to ignore 99 percent of what most are people are saying and try it for myself.

Originally Posted by rjshae
In most group projects, the large majority are more than willing to say how the work should be done; very few are willing to do the actual work.

Indeed.

This dude's decided to take his beef to Change.org!

https://www.change.org/p/pillars-of-…rced-area-wide

wow….. Has to be better things to do … Anyway looking forward to it still.

Originally Posted by Ripper
This dude's decided to take his beef to Change.org!

https://www.change.org/p/pillars-of-…rced-area-wide

*facepalm*

wow….just, wow….

If there is one thing I don't like about kickstarters is that they allow those that don't have any game design experience to get the ear of the developer. If you get enough of the mob mentality going sometimes these devs think that an idea shouted loud enough and long enough is the right one.

It take a strong dev to do whats right for the game instead of what the masses want.

That Orchestra strech goal was the best thing ever! I got PoE running in the background in the menu screen with the main title on loop…nice stuff.

Originally Posted by rune_74
If there is one thing I don't like about kickstarters is that they allow those that don't have any game design experience to get the ear of the developer. If you get enough of the mob mentality going sometimes these devs think that an idea shouted loud enough and long enough is the right one.

It take a strong dev to do whats right for the game instead of what the masses want.

You see that in MMOs too and they are not crowdfunded.

Originally Posted by rune_74
If there is one thing I don't like about kickstarters is that they allow those that don't have any game design experience to get the ear of the developer. If you get enough of the mob mentality going sometimes these devs think that an idea shouted loud enough and long enough is the right one.

It take a strong dev to do whats right for the game instead of what the masses want.

I agree. Some audience feedback at the right point, and plenty of bug hunting, are surely valuable. But this idea that creativity should be directed by the cry of the mob is just horrible. Can you imagine what would have happened to some of your favourite movies by your favourite directors if this had been the process.

Originally Posted by azarhal
That Orchestra strech goal was the best thing ever! I got PoE running in the background in the menu screen with the main title on loop…nice stuff.



You see that in MMOs too and they are not crowdfunded.

True, but it doesn't change my point.

My kickstarter money was well spent I didn't send in many bug reports, and most of the stuff I mentioned was already well known, but I hope I at least made some small contribution to the game's development. The beta is shaping up rather nicely, though I suspect we'll see a lot of patches in the days after release. Not that I mind, New Vegas was basically the same deal and I loved that.

Originally Posted by Ripper
This dude's decided to take his beef to Change.org!

https://www.change.org/p/pillars-of-…rced-area-wide

Hahaha, and he even put his name out there. Poor sod =D