Pillars of Eternity II - Patch 1.02

Patch 1.02 for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is available:

Hello fellow Watchers!

It's been a little over a week since we released Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire and we have received tons of amazing feedback and bug reports. Thanks to all of your support we have been able to find many bugs hidden around the Deadfire and get to fixing them. Below is the list of fixes coming in for the now released 1.0.2 patch.

Major Fixes

• [Mac/OSX] Resolved issue with loading into a black screen on Macs with Intel Integrated Graphics Cards.
• Mouse clicks now properly resister for users using the Korean IME in windows.
• Player Dispositions should change less drastically for small decisions.
• Level Scaling now enables correctly when toggled on.
• Players can now set or save cloned AI behaviors for all classes, and quick saves will not be lost when doing so.
• Fixed multiple Pillars I imports that were importing the incorrect state.
• Fixed a permissions issue that was blocking some players from loading saves.
• Fixed a combat related memory leak (should improve some FPS on long play sessions).
• Potential Spoilers*]Spoiler

Companions/Crew

• Eder's end game state from Pillars I has been fixed.

Audio

• Various VO fixes to the Vox Machina voice sets.

Miscellaneous

• Custom AI settings should now save changes when adding new conditionals or abilities.
• Gold, Greed, and Guts achievement now unlocks when loading a save that has completed the quest.
• Pillars I history creator now removes options from the list once a choice has been made to prevent confusion.
• Various Credit fixes.

More information.

Hold it, hold IT. few more patches…

So it begins.

Originally Posted by ikbenrichard
Hold it, hold IT. few more patches…

What more? The game has some bugs but nothing critical. Play now.

Unless you're waiting for Josh Sawyer rebalancing… I'm hoping that thing won't appear before I finish it's expansions.

They could up the challenge a bit.
I'm playing on hard and the only actual hard fight I had so far was when I accidentally stumbled into an encounter that must have been some levels above me…
Hopefully the challenge picks up a bit later in the game. I don't really want to play on the hardest difficulty as I don't want that number bloat.

Is there an ETA for the expansion(s)?

Originally Posted by TheSHEEEP
They could up the challenge a bit.
I'm playing on hard and the only actual hard fight I had so far was when I accidentally stumbled into an encounter that must have been some levels above me…
Hopefully the challenge picks up a bit later in the game. I don't really want to play on the hardest difficulty as I don't want that number bloat.

It is not like PoE1 had any challenge. I played it on second hardest difficulty and had like 4 harder fights in whole game (not counting expansions). Everything else was setup 2 tanks in front to block movement and cast same encounter spells and ability every fight until everyone is dead.
Per rest abilities/spells I would only use when I got bored or during those 4 harder fights.

Originally Posted by TheSHEEEP
They could up the challenge a bit.

They acknowledged it was too easy, but bugfixing is a priority.

One thing though, the level scaling is just -2/+2 the enemy levels, so even if they did something to make "at level" harder, you'll still end up overleveling lots of stuff.

But something changed between beta 3 and 4. Enemies in the beta used to be a lot more aggressive with abilities. I'm wondering if the combat memory leak wasn't reduced in effect by reducing how often enemies attacked. Saying that expect the nerfing to be hard and wide once they rebalance stuff.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Is there an ETA for the expansion(s)?

They already gave tentative release window:
Beast Of Winter : July
Seeker, Slayer, Survivor: September
The Forgotten Sanctum: November

They have a different team working on them and Josh is not the director (he's managing the bugfixing/balancing team).

If you already have it, play it. There's nothing major to fix, at least as far as bugs are concerned.

You might want to wait for the patches, a final "complete game" edition or a major discount if you don't.

Originally Posted by azarhal
They already gave tentative release window:
Beast Of Winter : July
Seeker, Slayer, Survivor: September
The Forgotten Sanctum: November

Thanks.
Is it known if these expansions are meant to be played after or during the main game's plot?

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Thanks.
Is it known if these expansions are meant to be played after or during the main game's plot?

Based on the press releases the expansions just add more content to the base game. Its like the expansion DLC The White March which was integrated into the game.

Obsidian Entertainment, developer of critically acclaimed role-playing games, in partnership with indie publisher Versus Evil, today announced plans for three exciting, in-depth expansion packs for Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. The expansion packs will include new quests that will add to the lore of the Deadfire, new areas to discover, new secrets to reveal, and a whole host of new characters to meet and challenges to overcome!

The first downloadable-content pack (DLC), "Beast Of Winter" will be available in July 2018, and will take your party to an island populated by a mysterious doomsday cult, that hides an ancient secret. Players will get to experience adventuring in "The Beyond," a mysterious dimension populated by ancient souls and filled with devilish challenges.

The second DLC "Seeker, Slayer, Survivor" available in September 2018, is a combat-focused expansion taking place on a previously undiscovered island that will challenge the martial prowess of your party, and your tactical skills as a commander, as you embark on a mission to rediscover ancient relics, and pit your party against Eora’s most skilled and savage.

The third DLC, "The Forgotten Sanctum" available in November 2018, will test your party’s allegiance and morality in a quest to help (or obstruct) the great wizards of Eora. Will you befriend, betray or befuddle these venerable mystics as you uncover secrets lost to the generations? The consequences of your actions will be felt across the Deadfire Archipelago whatever you decide.

So bottom line their not endgame expansions.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Thanks.
Is it known if these expansions are meant to be played after or during the main game's plot?

Going by what happens, I really doubt it's after the main story.

There's a general consensus over on the official forums that the game is too easy and level scaling is currently not working. I caved and bought this (w/ a 25% off voucher at GMG), but I'm probably just going to replay the first installment for the time being.

One of these days years, Obsidian will get their time management and Q/A right.

Originally Posted by Drithius
One of these days years, Obsidian will get their time management and Q/A right.

It's their most stable and "bugfree" game at release to date.

and level scaling was fixed in yesterday patch…not that it makes the game that harder because it's limited to -2/+2 enemy level (Josh already did a pass to make that wider, but next patch is just early June).

Originally Posted by azarhal
It's their most stable and "bugfree" game at release to date.

and level scaling was fixed in yesterday patch…not that it makes the game that harder because it's limited to -2/+2 enemy level (Josh already did a pass to make that wider, but next patch is just early June).

I'm not sure any amount of level scaling would fix the encounters, since nothing comes close to the Adra Dragon. It would just make the game more tedious.

Originally Posted by Drithius
There's a general consensus over on the official forums that the game is too easy and level scaling is currently not working.

1.02 fixes level scaling. Hopefully they do tweak the difficulty.

Is it considered too easy on harder difficulties also?

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Is it considered too easy on harder difficulties also?

Going by how people are complaining, i.e. saying that the default AI can clear any encounters on POTD in a few seconds with starter gear, and my personal experience on normal, Veteran and POTD being easier than normal is the only explanation I have for it. Letting the AI drive the harder fight has just resulted in party wipe for me against at level encounters and I started to have issues when everyone was still in starter gear at level 8 because enemies started to have exceptional armor and starter gear can't penetrate it (you need magical weapons or spells).

Also, I've seen people complains about getting character one-shots by enemies which doesn't really work with "too easy" either, but not idea at what difficulty they were. Also, plenty of people asking for code to spawn magical items in their inventory as well.

Saying that, they need to halve weapons and some abilities damage.

Yes, from what I've read, it does sound like the difficulty should be bumped up some. Most combat should at least be a challenge at the Veteran setting. I don't think it need to be murderous; just not a slam dunk.

Erm… What azarhal said people talking about starter gear is also IMO exaggerated. Sure there is a broken arquebus that enhanced can wipe out any trashmobs group by itself. Then there's also evoker mage that pretty much pwns everyting on it's own. Stuff like that. On any difficulty.
But those things will most definetly get nerfed over time.

The game's general problem is that bosses are somewhat too easy. I mean, who cares about difficulty of random trashmobs? They're there for experience (bot gamewise and playerwise) and loot.
But when you play on normal and pick random skills, equip random stuff, turn on AI, a bloody boss should kill something there. All those bosses just fail to do that. My best guess is that's because the game was designed to make stupid fastruns possible. I can only wish a fastrunner couldn't kill anything without doing some sidequests and looting some better equipment - sadly the game director wasn't brave enough to do that. From marketing standpoint it seems a good decision as the game got showered with 9s and 10s from critics. From players loving exploration perspective it's bad as over time any challenge is lost.