I wanted to finally get the ranger companion’s quest done yesterday but ended up just finishing the game when I could not find the last area and more or less accidentally stumbled into act 4.
My main character was a honest/rational ranger with low resolve and int, once the patch hits I think I’ll start a POTD run with a custom munchkin party and a high resolve and lore watcher.
Are these companion quests their own unique map zones?
No, nothing like that, but without the quest there may be things that don’t appear/trigger on a given map (which is why I left until I could grab the ranger). One of the levels in the Endless Path seemed to have a dead end, for example, and it turned to be because I didn’t have Kana in my party.
That reminds me, I should go do Kana’s quest.
robc04
1867
One of the things about Pillars that I wish were different finally dawned on me. I wish there were weapon related skills that characters must have to effectively use different types of weapons, to make the characters feel more differently. Maybe by default classes would have certain skills, maybe not. It could just be that ranged weapons feel too powerful. There just aren’t a lot of opportunities where I feel like I need to use my spells. My back row has an arbalest, a pistol, and a bow. It just seems like they do enough damage without using up their spells. Then in that rare battle I use them. My spell casters feel more like archers / shooters then spell casters.
Like BG1! I equip almost everyone with a long range weapon to start combat. Learned from BG1 where it was a dominant strategy for a while.
Yeah, I remember using lots of bows and slings in BG1. BG2 felt much better balanced in giving me reasons to use more melee weapons and spells.
I’ve yet to use a bow. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.
My rogue uses a bow to open up a few fights (she can still trigger her blinding and weakening strikes with them) but I find the Priest spells to be way more useful than using a rifle (he has one, though I only remember when he gets charmed or dominated and pulls it out). My Wizard has a really, REALLY nice Wand right now that can stun and trigger some sort of spell effect on target, but he’s a lot more useful dropping stuff like Capricious Hex or Deep Slumber - especially since stuff like Curse of Blindness and Chill Fog are “per encounter” now. YMMV.
Sarkus
1872
As with the IE games, a ranged weapon early on for back row people can make sense but rapidly becomes less valuable once higher level spells become available.
In other news, word on the official forums is that they are trying to push out a patch tomorrow. I have to say I’m a bit disappointed that they didn’t fix the double click thing right away. Waiting over a week for the first patch is a bit of a drag even if it does attempt to fix more then just one or two major issues. I haven’t personally been affected by any of the major bugs, but it is getting a lot of attention and Obsidian has a reputation that comes into play here.
Bateau
1873
I’ll probably use this opportunity to start a new game, probably a tank (paladin?) character that’s also a convo monster.
Sarkus, with a big RPG like this you have to remember that one fix can easily break something else. Imagine if the fix for the double-click seemed easy, just a typo somewhere in the code. They fix it and push it out right away. Oops, something else was calling that same piece of code, and now Act II doesn’t load. At all. Also, you need to spend 40-60 hours testing the game, so it’s smarter (unless the game is broken, which in this case it wasn’t - technically you could still finish it) to get as many issues fixed as they can, and then do one testing pass and get it out fast. Tomorrow is only 8 days after launch, so that’s really not terrible.
Sarkus
1875
Sure, but some of these were known within a day or two of release. So they’ve known that and had plenty of time to fix it and test it. And for some people, the Raedric Hold thing is a game stopper.
What I wonder about is whether the multiple platform issue is playing a role here. It’s very easy to put out a fix on Steam, but (from what I gather) GoG has different issues.
Ultimately I’m just disappointed they couldn’t deal with the big stuff sooner because now you have gaming media talking about some of these bugs and Obsidian has this reputation that just gets reinforced by stuff like that.
stusser
1876
1.03 Preliminary Patch Notes
Permanent stat changes due to double-clicking and loading in maps where you get companions was retroactively fixed. Everything is gonna be OK, guys.
Edit: Oh wow, ancient memory (the chanter thingie that heals everybody around him in an AE) currently heals your enemies too! That’s a good one to fix.
Another good one, I noticed that the area map often was very dark and hard to see.
Reduced the intensity of the explored fog of war on the area map, and fixed an issue where the shadow layer was causing the area map to be darker than it should be.
The problem with wands is they’re 10m range to 12m for bows, which practically ensures that unless you micro, any enemies which get past your front line will be able to whack on the Wizard, rather than say the ranger being in a position to cut them off ><
“Chill Fog is now a friend or foe spell”
Nooooo!
jg93
1879
Grrrr… I notice they’re “Reduced the penalties for Bonded Grief.”
However, fixing it getting stuck on is not mentioned.
You can now cast AoEs on party member portraits and the spell will be targeted at the companion’s location.
That should help the folks who kept trying to Cure Light Wounds by clicking party portraits and having their Cleric go wandering. . .
Raised the bonus for having fewer than six party members from 5% per character under the limit to 10% per character under the limit.
This should make those 1-man Path of the Damned / Heart of Iron / Expert runs very slightly easier.
Monk unarmed attack buffed by 1 point at the top end.
Arbalest damage has been lowered.
Fast melee weapons do slightly more damage.
Slight bump to sabre damage.
All interesting. The Monk damage seems very minor, while complaints about both ends of the monk (both underpowered initially and overpowered later on) might not really be affected much.
Seeing arbalests go down slightly might help the “ranged is basically better” mentality I’ve seen bandied about here and elsewhere.
The damage increase to Fast Melee will be a big boon versus higher-DR opponents, so I love it. Makes dual-wielding builds much more viable.
And, of course, I’m personally happy that Sabres get a buff so I feel less desire to re-spec Eder to them and not feel like his pre-chosen Ruffian Weapon Style Talent is a waste (since I want him to stay sword-n-shield, Saber was the best option, but kinda plinky damage wise).
LOL probably for the best, you know a spell is too good when you cast it every battle even at level 12. :)
I now several people that will be happy to read Wizards are getting better:
•Tuned ranges of many Wizard spells to be higher.
DeepT
1882
Yeah, that was a major complaint of mine. In areas that were naturally dark, it is impossible to see if an area was unexplored or not.
