Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Ulrox]

That's why I don't kill dragons - reasoning with them is more fun.

You dont get Carsomyr without killing dragons though.

 

[Sensuki]

I'm starting to think that PoE's systems might be too complex for Obsidian's QA capabilities.

Their best QA member (Nick Carver) also got promoted to System Designer.

Wouldn't be surprised if that makes a bit of a dent.

 

[Roguey]

I've seen multiple goons complain about the combat density of White March, so bravo for Obsidian repeating the flaw of Icewind Dale 2 to pad out the playtime of their DLC.

That Sawyer quote's going on my list.

 

[Iajawl]

The problem isnt the combat difficulty. Everyone refuses to acknowledge this, but difficulty simply doesnt matter when the base system used is complete crap.

If the difficulty feels right then I can at least get one playthrough. The pathfinding,AI and easymode combat combined with everything else is too much for me though.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

Isn't PoE at Hard only with more encounters ? I'm asking because I never played past normal difficulty. But I think it's a great idea not to just rise the stats of enemies. Is the combat that easy?
I'm getting my ass kicked in Crägholdt Bluffs but I like it a lot because I have to prepare for every battle.

 

[Fairfax]

Isn't PoE at Hard only with more encounters ? I'm asking because I never played past normal difficulty. But I think it's a great idea not to just rise the stats of enemies. Is the combat that easy?
I'm getting my ass kicked in Crägholdt Bluffs but I like it a lot because I have to prepare for every battle.

Hard adds more enemies and replaces some of the weaker enemy types for stronger ones. You also can't carry more than 2 camping supplies. Only POTD changes the attributes.

My first playthrough was on Hard because everyone was saying the companions had shitty builds (which was true, specially before the patches) but I ended up regretting it. Once I reached level 6 everything became too easy, and the only real challenge came with the Adra dragon, the final boss and the 2nd fight with Raedric.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

Hard adds more enemies and replaces some of the weaker enemy types for stronger ones. You also can't carry more than 2 camping supplies. Only POTD changes the attributes.

My first playthrough was on Hard because everyone was saying the companions had shitty builds (which was true, specially before the patches) but I ended up regretting it. Once I reached level 6 everything became too easy, and the only real challenge came with the Adra dragon, the final boss and the 2nd fight with Raedric.

but now we also have the dragon from White March and Crägholdt Bluffs as difficult battles. Maybe things will change with more patches.

 

[Fairfax]

but now we also have the dragon from White March and Crägholdt Bluffs as difficult battles. Maybe things will change with more patches.

I've yet to kill the dragon from the White March or complete CB, but the most challenging fights are basically the same on Normal and Hard. Hard adds more enemies and changes some enemy types, but that doesn't make a difference if you're fighting a single enemy. The only hard battle that's probably different is the 2nd Raedric fight, because I imagine the number of fampyrs is increased.

 

[Anthedon]

Patch 2.01 is live. http://forums.obsidian.net/blog/7/entry-187-update-notes-201/

This patch fixes many minor issues that came up before and after launch of The White March - Part I. We have also done optimizations to save/loads and area transitions performance. Please provide feedback if you notice a difference.
As always, there are many more fixes than listed.

Major Fixes

• Party members will now default to AI: On and Instruction Set: None.
• Many optimizations to save/load and area transitions performance. Some users are reporting a 20% decrease in load times.
• Blurry text in UI has been fixed.
• Problems with the stash not properly containing items that have been looted is now fixed.

Abilities

• Dragon Leap should now break engagement properly.
• Coordinated Positioning range increased from 2m to 2.5m.
• Fixed stacking issue with Weapon Specialization and Weapon Mastery and both can now be applied to the same attack.
• Based on player's feedback we made tweaks to improve AI packages for Monks, Druids, and Ciphers.
• Instruction sets for Druids, Wizards, and Priests will now use lower level spells at higher frequencies.
• Ciphers will not use Whispers of Treason on single enemies.
• Many small fixes to spell and ability tooltips and descriptions.

Items

• Stormcaller's 1st requirement lowered to 250 shock damage. 2nd requirement lowered to 5 druids defeated.
• Greenstone Staff 1st requirement lowered to 125 damage vs. beetles. 2nd requirement lowered to 5 blights defeated.
• St. Ydwen's 1st requirement lowered to 200 damage vs. spirits. 2nd requirement lowered to 10 vessels defeated.
• Item mod Draining will be restored properly after a save/load.
• Added the White Forge crafting icon.

Quests

• A Lovely Drop quest is not failed if Haeferic dies after the party obtains the antidote ingredients.
• Haeferic now reacts properly after imprisoning Ailef.
• Lurgold is properly removed from the Fishery after the fight with Grynde during the day.
• The dexterity check in the conversation with Sweynur will only show up if the player has a blade.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Added missing ambient audio to Durgan's Battery dungeon.
• Updated many creatures' bestiary entries with correct abilities.
• Ogre Battery Cannoneers now use Rogue abilities instead of Ranger abilities.
• Added Concelhaut's Draining Missiles to Ironclapsed Grimoire.
• Druid-Wolf Suldrun now scales for high level content mode.
• Fixed issue with Fog of War behaving incorrectly in some scenes (Aufra's house) if a player used an older save game.
• Several improvements and tweaks to area background art, including Cragholdt.
• Solo Achievement is disabled correctly if Zahua or The Devil of Caroc is added to the party.
• Fixed Kana's conversation when he is in the White March areas.

 

[Fairfax]

20% decrease in load times? Some users? Oh, dear.
I'll give it a shot in a bit.

 

[Fairfax]

Is the Codex going to have reviews for the expansion? I'd really like to give it a shot, in the case folks in the staff are interested. If my piece sucks, all you have to do is not publish it.

 

[Iajawl]

Is the Codex going to have reviews for the expansion? I'd really like to give it a shot, in the case folks in the staff are interested. If my piece sucks, all you have to do is not publish it.

It might say "RPG Codex > Chris Avellone Employment Agency" but that is just a ruse. It is more like "RPG Codex > PoE Review Factory"

 

[Fairfax]

It might say "RPG Codex > Chris Avellone Employment Agency" but that is just a ruse. It is more like "RPG Codex > PoE Review Factory"

Heh, the early PoE reviews are pretty entertaining though, specially the shitstorm in the threads.

 

[Jaesun]

Is the Codex going to have reviews for the expansion? I'd really like to give it a shot, in the case folks in the staff are interested. If my piece sucks, all you have to do is not publish it.

We still have five more pillars review to do first...

 

[Rake]

Reviewing this expansion is Darth Roxor 's duty

 

[covr]

Base game is loading 3 times longer that before the expansion. Wtf? Performance is worse and there is no extra graphics options in the menu to disable. Those guys are really amateurs.

 

[Lhynn]

Review by lhynn:
It better than the base game by virtue of not being the base game, its still shit.

 

[Shevek]

Is the Codex going to have reviews for the expansion? I'd really like to give it a shot, in the case folks in the staff are interested. If my piece sucks, all you have to do is not publish it.

Didnt Bubbles request to do the xpac review a while ago? I would assume he would wait for pt 2.

 

[Rake]

Didnt Bubbles request to do the xpac review a while ago? I would assume he would wait for pt 2.

So what? The more the the merrier. Codex still hasn't filled it's quota for PoE reviews.
We still want 3 for the base game, seven for the WM part 1, seven for part 2, and another seven for the whole saga. Keep writing folks

 

[Bubbles]

There were whispers from the staff about another base game review about a month ago. Don't know any details or what became of it, but I wouldn't be suprised if there was another review popping up on the front page soon. All of these reviews have been drawing large amounts of site traffic -- much more than anything else in the last few years. Would be dumb of the staff to just stop publishing them.

 

[Canus]

The longer I play the worse the load times get, I'm at about 30 hours in and the load times are now reaching up to about 40 seconds. I assume this is going to get worse before it gets better.
I don't recall this happening in the base game, and it's the main thing putting me off finishing the game, particularly as I'm right in front of the Adra dragon and that means either trying to kill it, with however many reloads it takes to get a good RNG, or leaving, which is just more loading screens.

 

[Pope Amole II]

The longer I play the worse the load times get, I'm at about 30 hours in and the load times are now reaching up to about 40 seconds. I assume this is going to get worse before it gets better.

Do you have lots of saves? It's not a universal solution, but for some people keeping the amount of saves to the minimum helps this.

 

[Ulrox]

I don't recall this happening in the base game/QUOTE]

You recall wrong, this happened for many in the base game.

 

[Roguey]

Wow, they really are determined to be Dragon Age: Origins, making stability and such even worse with the expansion.

I hope things get all ironed out before I pick it up, I'd hate to only use 1.06.

 

[Ulrox]

I hope things get all ironed out before I pick it up, I'd hate to only use 1.06.

If you pick it up you mean.