Deadfire - Q&A w/ Josh Sawyer 5/15/18 Summary
I took some brief notes while watching today's Q&A stream with Josh Sawyer on Twitch (
https://www.twitch.tv/obsidian). This isn't everything discussed, but should be most things pertinent to bugs/balance fixes.
If there's anything you feel I missed, please add it below. If you feel I misconstrued anything, please let me know and I will correct. I typed these pretty quick, so please forgive any bad grammar/spelling.
- Official Patch not out today. Major bug was found that pushed the patch back until later this week. Beta Branch of the patch has been updated today
- Major bug is related to Disposition, which affects a number of relationship scripts. i.e., becoming flagged as 'cruel' after a single dialog option.
- Shout out to the user who made a mod regarding disposition gain. Note that using the mod in it's current state will also slow down the rate of reputation gained with factions. Official fix coming with the patch later this week (tomorrow?), as well as cleaning up the disposition options (making sure there is always a neutral option)
- Vela is meant to have companion banter (no standalone dialog). Vela not appearing on the ship will be fixed on this patch.
- Level scaling not applying correctly is being fixed (this fix is live in the beta branch).
- Mac black screen fix is coming (may be live on beta fix?). Issue with shaders & the testing graphics cards.
- Quest difficulty indicators (when upscaling) not showing - confirmed bug, may not be fixed this week.
- Quest/creature skull indicator planned to be replaced with showing the actual level.
- POTD/Veteran difficulty is known to be too easy. Increasing the difficulty is a priority but will take some time. No easy fix, Josh is working with the designers to rebalance all encounters. Will not be in this week's patch, but is being actively worked on.
- Fix for companion relationships (how they feel about each other, how they react to dialog) is going to be addressed as well. Related to, but not part of the disposition fix coming this week.
- Any plan to share AI scripts (import/export)? Not at this time, but possible future feature improvement.
- Ship encounters are hand built, not procedurally generated. Balance being looked at for the future.
- Viewing class skill trees (outside of leveling) is coming, but not this week.
- Beta Branch should not break save games HOWEVER, it probably will not retroactively apply changes for past decisions
- Behind the Scenes Documentary? Commentary? Cool things to do, but team is focused on bug fixing at the moment.
- Will level cap be increased in the expansions? Josh confirmed he is not the game director for the expansions. Cannot speak to this.
- FREE DLC NEXT WEEK - "Rum Runners" - New side kick; new player pose, 'Drunk'; 6 new alcohols for resting/bonuses
- Ability Rebalancing? In progress. Not in this week's patch. Buffs/nerfs as needed.
- Duplication Bug - fix is in place (beta branch?).
- Chanter balance? Yes, balancing is in progress. Chanter multiclass is extremely powerful. Looking at Beckoner as well as individual Chanter abilities.
- Could Sidekicks become full companions? Josh can't speak to the DLC, but they are aware it is very desired by the players
- Why do some items show 0% chance to apply effects? Bug. Case by case fix. It is a display bug, it should be applying correctly regardless.
- Too many Swords/Sabres? Aware there are too many. Will push for DLC to focus on other weapon types.
- Ship Upgrades too expensive? Gold sinks are a good thing. There were too little in the first game
- Tooltips clean up are in progress.
- Infinite money bug (through the fish vendor) fix is in.
- Moon Godlike passives are weaker than POE1? Yes, that is intentional. Not underpowered, just not as good as it was in the first game.
- P&P Starter Guide - Updates are coming, but focus is on game bug fixes right now. Maybe an update towards the end of May?
- Reworking Navel Combat - can be better, are looking at improving down the road
- View on Mods? They're great! Very pro-Mod. Keep making more.
- Two-weapon balance (weak compared to dual wielding) - Looking into it. Want a place for all weapon types. Weapon values should be simple to mod, if the community wants to try different values.
- Enemy Ship equipment/aggression being looked into. Changes in the future (not this week's patch).