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To mark the 10th anniversary of its old-school isometric RPG Pillars of Eternity, the game that (in a very roundabout way) gave us Avowed, Obsidian has rolled out a big new patch and an even bigger piece of news: It took a full decade to happen, but turn-based combat is finally on the way.
“Coming later this year, Watchers will be able to help us test a brand-new feature: Turn-Based Combat,” Obsidian announced on its forums.
“We’re excited to explore this new way to experience encounters in Pillars of Eternity, and your feedback will help shape its future. More details on how to participate will be shared in the near future, so keep an eye on our socials and in our Discord.”
It might not seem like a big deal to you, a normal person who enjoys videogames on their individual merits and doesn’t raise a stink at the pub when someone strings together the letters “RTWP” without suggesting that some sort of crime against humanity has been committed. Around here, though, it leads to the game journalist equivalent of a fistfight in the break room:
Andy Kelly is no longer with us (he’s not dead, he’s just working at Devolver Digital now) but I immediately checked his Bluesky feed to see if he’d had any sort of overexcited reaction to the news. He had not, but the void was admirably (and entirely predictably) filled by PC Gamer’s Joshua Wolens and Ted Litchfield, who are—and I quote—”going Ape Shit.”
“For God’s sake, why?” you may ask, and honestly I’m as baffled as you are. But I’m not kidding when I say it’s a matter of great import: Ted once called real-time with pause “a disaster for the human spirit and our collective progress,” and in 2015 PC Gamer Australian editor Jody Macgregor—inspired by the original Pillars of Eternity, in fact—shared a very in-depth rundown of why he hates it.
For myself, I say real-time with pause was good enough for Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, the greatest RPGs of all time, and if it’s good enough for them it’s good enough for you. Otherwise, though, I mostly try to stay out of it.
In any event, it won’t matter what side of the debate you come down as far as Pillars of Eternity goes once the update is live: You can choose which you want and enjoy as you see fit. This isn’t the first time Obsidian has retroactively added turn-based combat to a Pillars game, by the way—Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire got the same treatment (albeit without the decade-long wait) in 2019.
While the turn-based combat update won’t arrive for a while yet, Pillars of Eternity did get a separate beefy update today that makes a number of fixes and tweaks to gameplay. The full patch notes on that are below.
General
- Mac users can now receive the latest updates.
- The title no longer boots into a black screen if the user’s OS is set to Turkish (or languages with similar text formatting).
- GOG achievements now unlock properly.
- Steam/GOG Kickstarter and Backer reward items should once again be granted properly to new players.
- Steam Linux is now supported and will be included in future patches.
- Epic Game Store users will now properly receive their Royal Edition digital content rewards.
- Game saves are now listed with priority given to the most recent, regardless of the method used to create them (Quicksave, Autosave, or manual).
Visual and Audio
- Fixed an issue that prevented character selection barks from playing in certain cases. (Eder has once again found his voice)
- Grimoires will now correctly hide while reading scrolls.
- Certain cutscenes and maps will now perform better in 4k.
- Fixed a remaining edge case that would cause characters to t-pose in very specific cutscenes.
- Fixed a number of dialogue nodes that would trigger a brief “knock” sound when displayed.
- Removed unintended echo effects on act introduction audio and developer commentary.
- Ferry boat in Oldsong is no longer partially submerged.
- Several variant forms of Woodskin have had their VFX aligned correctly. (Spell Holding, Spell Bind, Adragan & Delemgan variants, etc…)
- Delemgans, Adragan, Pwgra, and Menpwgra have had missing visual and audio effects updated on many of their spells and abilities.
- Characters that are immune to poison won’t bark about being poisoned when attacked by poisonous attacks.
- All animal companions will now play footstep audio.
- Hiravias’ Spiritshift FX will now properly play when he leaves spiritshift form.
- Taena’s centec VO will now play correctly in both contexts that it can be heard.
Quests and Dialogue
- Fixed softlock when hiring Aldwyn and using his services at Brighthallow.
- Fixed softlock when using Aldwyn’s services in the Salty Mast after hiring Lyrinia.
- Obtaining a quest reward from Simoc in the Sacrifical Bloodlines quest and then killing him will no longer result in a second copy of the reward item on his corpse.
- After being awarded Alia Braccia in Hearthsong killing the High Monk afterwards will no longer grant a second instance of the reward.
- Killing Ranga before the potion is acquired will now correctly fail A Mother’s Plea.
- Abrecan will now still accept the letter he sends you to retrieve, even if you already possess it when he first tells you about his request.
- Krivi’s rewards in Od Nua cannot be obtained multiple times by selecting similar dialogue nodes. Now only one outcome is permitted.
- Anamfath Leader in Twin Elms will continue The Child of Five Suns quest even in the case of Vincent Agosti being dead after being spoken to prior.
- Failing the Athletics and Dexterity checks in the Durgan’s Battery scripted interaction will now properly apply the Concussion affliction.
- Accepting Tealdor’s Bounty relating to the Disciples of the True Flame and leaving the conversation will not prevent players from asking later on about the Bounty for Laenric.
- Giving Dunstan the final pieces of the Blade of the Endless Paths while he is defending the keep will now correctly reward the player.
- Accusing Grynde of being a ripple sponge addict for reward can no longer be repeated infinitely.
- What happens to the ogre Crothar no longer affects Korgrak’s quest states.
Combat and Mechanics
- Fixed a case where the Shadow Step ability could cause a crash.
- Shadow Step ability is no longer treated as a modal and can now target ground locations.
- Spellsword Wizard AI will properly activate Second Wind instead of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion when low on Endurance.
- Party AI will no longer attempt to activate Second Wind in cases where their Endurance is low, but also capped due to low Health.
- Party AI will no longer select charmed or confused allies as targets for their hostile abilities.
- As in PoE2, Party AI that are commanded by the player to move to a location will not attempt to move from that location for a brief period. (They will still attack during that time if possible).
- Trap Accuracy no longer counts the accuracy modifier on the trap’s attack twice in its calculation.
- Fixed an issue that prevented Constant Recovery from scaling in the same way that Veteran’s Recovery does. (Constant Recovery is now superior to Veteran’s Recovery at all levels, as expected).
- Ryona’s Buckle’s Tenacity Accuracy bonus will now properly activate and deactivate based on the wearer’s current Endurance (vs. Only checking endurance at the time the belt was equipped).
- Iron Circle’s Adamant damage reduction now properly deactivates when the wearer rises back above 26% Endurance.
- Killing Bolt traps now target Fortitude, matching its spell counterpart.
- Killing Bolt traps no longer mention slash damage in their description.
- Chain Lightning Traps in Breith Eaman now properly deal damage if they strike a character.
- Binding and severing Abydon’s Hammer will no longer permanently increase the user’s Might attribute.
- The Lady’s Hand has had its effects reworked to use a trigger that can be better seen on the character sheet when active.
- The Black Sanctuary shield will now properly apply its endurance recovery effect when casting Withdraw.
- Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer will no longer cause traps to recursively trigger their effects.
- Elryn’s Jacket Eyestrike effect (and similar events that respond to hostile actions) no longer trigger from beneficial “attacks”.
- Powder Burns modal (and similar effects) no longer harms allies located in the AoE’s bonus area from intellect.
- Fulvano’s Blunderbuss Spellchance: Charm can now properly trigger and charm targets.
- Knock Down will now respect suppression when trying to determine if there’s an active knocked down status effect preventing stand up.
- Enemies can no longer move around while being proned by Concelhaut’s Crushing Doom.
- Izali’s Boon stealth skill bonus now correctly clears after a rest.
- Scroll of Minoletta’s Bounding Missiles now uses the correct spell description.
- Scroll of Boiling Spray range now matches its spell counterpart.
- Scrolls of Restore Endurance have had their range increased to match their spell counterparts.
- Hirelings from the Salty Mast will continue to provide their boons when using their services at the player’s stronghold.
- Skyward Kick no longer triggers a vertical launch when it would miss with additional effects.
- Skyward Kick will no longer cause targets to remain prone permanently.
- Players affected by multiple Unconscious effects will no longer be able to move around while Unconscious. (Similar cases with other effects should also be fixed).
User Interface and Interaction
- Fixed a case where a character’s culture could be lost in very specific level up circumstances.
- Weapons can now be equipped to the first weapon set by double-clicking them in the inventory.
- Right-clicking on a creature will now display its bestiary entry (if it has one).
- Fixed some cases where the Retrain Character UI might show white portraits.
- Best of damage type icons now display correctly in the character sheet UI.
- Fixed a case where Burial Isle visions might prevent the user from canceling actions.
- Containers that aren’t associated with a major faction, but will trigger an attack response from interaction, will now appropriately display the stealing cursor.
- Trapped chest in the Abbot’s Quarter’s during the Rising Tide quest can now be looted correctly after being disarmed.
- Pickables and similar interactions can no longer be looted multiple times using queue’d actions.
- Removed erroneous description from Guardian Spirit ability on Ancestor Pendant.
- Setting an invalid name after reaching the end of character creation will no longer allow you to finalize character creation.
- Character Creation attribute totals only display culture bonuses after the culture screen is reached.
- Localization:
- Several Talents that were missing localized text in various languages have been localized.
Known Issues
- We are still investigating the issue where in very rare cases the spell cursor might display the incorrect icon. A change included in this patch should make this occur far less frequently, but the core issue seems to be Unity related. We’ll continue to seek alternative solutions in a future update.
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Kurt Indovina
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