Backer Beta Updates

Marceror · Sep 17, 2014

Remove all ads!
Remember this is a 2D game, so there aren't too many environment animations, but what there is generally is pretty good.

Water animations are excellent. Spell animations look great (though could stand to be scaled back in my opinion -- just a little over the top for my taste). You'll see birds and other things flying by, and it looks really good.

It appears that animated plants were removed. There were definitely swaying trees and grass in some of the earlier videos. Not sure if they will be coming back.

The 2D painted backgrounds are absolutely top notch.

Hugin · Sep 17, 2014

Taluntain said: ↑

And let's be honest - most of the system changes are really just for the sake of not being too close to D&D for (I expect) legal reasons, not because they would necessarily be for the better.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily for the better, no. But not because of D&D either.

I really want to love this game - It could be so awesome. But ALL those changes being made? I was not expecting so much stuff to be changed, when I heard of a "spiritual successor" to the old IE games.

MANY of the changes made, were simply because the dev's didn't like the way it worked in the IE games.

I will give examples if you like, but that is why I am feeling a bit sad about Eternity. Unnecessary changes that feel.... Just WRONG....

Sorry 'bout my little rant. I am generally a positive person

Hey, and they still have 3 months to make the game better. I believe they can do it...

Marceror · Sep 17, 2014

One small "win" is that in the next release character inventory will be increased from 8 slots to 16 - and in fact there is a fan made mod recently created that makes this change.

Only having 8 inventory slots per character has been a sore spot for many beta testers, as it feels distinctly unlike the Infinity Engine for no good reason. Tactical inventory? Who thought that would be fun?

Screen of the mod created by Sensuki

Shardnax · Sep 18, 2014

Marceror said: ↑

One small "win" is that in the next release character inventory will be increased from 8 slots to 16 - and in fact there is a fan made mod recently created that makes this change.

Only having 8 inventory slots per character has been a sore spot for many beta testers, as it feels distinctly unlike the Infinity Engine for no good reason. Tactical inventory? Who thought that would be fun?

Screen of the mod created by Sensuki

Click to expand...

Definitely a change for the better, now you'll be able to carry 16 mountains instead of a mere eight .

Marceror · Sep 26, 2014

Backer Beta version 301 was released last night. The patch notes are included:

BAdler said:

Hello, everyone. We have released an update to the backer beta on Steam. We are still working on the Mac and Linux builds, so they are not currently up there (we are working as fast as we can on them, I promise). We have lots of new changes and fixes. As always, please play the build and give us feedback on our forums.

Here are the patch notes for the newly released Backer Beta Build 301.

Important Information Regarding Saves

Saved game location has changed. You can now find your saved games located in CUsers\<user name>\Documents\Saved Games\Pillars of Eternity. Keep in mind that old saved games will not be automatically moved to the new location and it is suggested that users start new games instead of trying to load old ones. Loading old games on the new build may cause undesirable behavior.

New Features

Rebalance to Attributes:
•Might: Damage and Healing •Every point of Might over 10 increases a character's base Damage and Healing by 2% (penalties if under 10).

•Constitution: Stamina and Health •Every point of Constitution over 10 increases the character's base Endurance and Health by 2% (penalties if under 10).

•Dexterity: Action Speed •Every point of Dexterity over 10 increases Action Speed by 2% (penalties if under 10).

•Perception: Accuracy and Range •Every point of Perception over 10 increases Accuracy by 1 and Range (for non-melee) by 5% (penalties if under 10).

•Intellect: AoE Size and Deflection •Every point of Intellect over 10 increases the character's AoE sizes by 5% and Deflection by 1 (penalties if under 10).

•Resolve: Concentration and Duration •Every point of Resolve over 10 increases a character's Concentration by 3% and Durations by 5% (penalties if under 10).

Stealth has been revised:

The new stealth system relies on the distance of a scouting character from an NPC to determine how quickly the creature will enter Alert and Combat states. A comparison of characters' individual Stealth skill ratings and creatures' levels modifies this rate. N.b.: A character that does not have LoS on the creature is not considered to be "inside" their radius.

When characters enter the scouting state, they gain a Stealth Meter. Currently, it's simply a solid circle completely filled with color (green or, if in colorblind mode, blue). This is a basic implementation and the art will change. Every NPC in the world has one of five stealth detection ratings (from Oblivious to Supernatural) that correspond to radii in the game.

When a scouting character gets into a creature's stealth detection range, their Stealth Meter will start filling from green/blue to yellow. This informs the player of how much time they have before the creature will enter Alert and Combat states. If the meter fills completely yellow, the creature will move up to a constant-defined max distance toward the character (e.g. 3m). At the same time, the yellow meter will begin to fill red. If the meter reaches full red, the scouting state is dropped, the character is detected, and hostile creatures enter Combat.

We will have a base rate at which these fills occur, but they can be modified by two elements: 1) the relationship between the character's Stealth and the target's level 2) the character's proximity to the target within the radius. The two modifiers both directly multiply the standard rate.

While this system is fully implemented, it has not been tuned and does not have final art.

Stamina is now called Endurance:

The stat previously known as Stamina is now called Endurance since that seems clearer to more people. Additionally, we are no longer doing the behind-the-scenes conversion of a percentage of received Stamina damage into Health damage as the system was opaque to players. Now, Max Endurance is multiplied by a factor determined by class to arrive at Max Health. This does mean that Health values are much higher than a traditional "D&D range", but in practice these values were already used in the background. In this update, when a character receives damage, it's applied equally to Endurance and Health.

Here are the current Endurance to Health multipliers for each class. "Front line" classes tend to have more Health as they are expected to be damaged and healed in combat with much greater frequency.

Barbarian - 6

Chanter - 4

Cipher - 4

Druid - 4

Fighter - 5

Monk - 6

Paladin - 5

Ranger - 4

Rogue - 4

Priest - 3

Wizard - 3

•UI arrows have been added to show active engagement. We are still evaluating their appearance and functionality internally, so please give us feedback on their usefulness.
•Hit effects for elemental damage, blood, and gibs have been added. Fire, shock, corrode, and frost damage will display visual effects on hit. Some creatures will gib when critically hit on death.
•Dead bodies now turn into loot containers and can be looted directly.
•New Talents. •This is the first batch of new talents more will be added in the coming weeks. All icons for the new talents are temporary.

•New icons.
•New sounds.
•New portraits.
•Many, many rules fixes and bug fixes for class abilities.

Fixes
•Spells: many spells have been tuned to have faster casting times, shorter ranges, do/heal more or less damage, apply different effects, attack different defenses, or do different damage types. Of note: Fireball, Jolting Touch, Minoletta's Bounding Missiles, Winter Wind, Talons' Reach, Returning Storm, all Restore ____ Stamina spells, Vile Thorns, Lay on Hands, and many others.
•Renormalized all attributes scores to 10 in character creation.
•Enemy AI will now scan for new targets when path is blocked.
•Caster AI can now investigate stealth.
•Improvements to AI instruction sets. Most enemy AI can now target specific party members, including back line characters and casters.
•Engagement is now cancelled on knockdown.
•Fixes to stat calculations in character sheet.
•Many fixes and adjustments to the combat log, including improved performance.
•Added many improvements to "feels" of action bar.
•Ranger animal companion, summoned creatures, and newly hired adventurers will not stomp on existing party members.
•Sound effects and music should not cut out during combat or during long play sessions.
•Improved footstep sounds.
•Improvements of character models and textures.
•Added highlight effect on mouseover for 3D objects, including doors and plants.
•Added 'G' for opening Chant Editor and Grimoire.
•Added exit button for character creation, level up, and adventurer's hall.
•Improvements to loot tables.
•Added notification for when stash can be used.
•Adjusted fog of war and view distances.
•Max wounds is now 10.
•Intellect deflection bonus is applied to Ranger animal companion.
•Changed many spells/abilities to be combat only.
•Many more fixes too numerous to mention.

Known Issues
•Placed traps do not work as intended.
•Perception does not currently increase the range of attacks and spells.
•Three of the new talents are not working correctly: Resilient Companion, Faithful Companion, and Painful Interdiction.
Click to expand...

Looks like a pretty nice collection of improvements, and generally speaking the feedback has been positive at the Obsidian boards. I haven't had the chance to try it out yet personally, and likely won't spend much time with it any time soon due to WL2.

But I did want to share.

Shardnax · Sep 26, 2014

Thanks for the update.

Marceror · Oct 25, 2014

Backer Beta 333 now live

Hey, everyone. The latest Backer Beta update is now live. We hope you enjoy. I have included some patch notes.

Thanks for all of the help in testing the game and providing useful feedback.

Talents and Core Abilities
Over a hundred Talents have been added to allow more options for class customization during the level up process. We've adjusted how the core class abilities are granted to allow for more flexibility within each class.

Revised Skill Progression
You can no longer spend points to upgrade skills during level up. All skill advancement is now done through Talents, and thematically grouped Talents will award additional skill points if chosen during level up. Your background choice during character creation will also reward additional skill points.

Fog Of War
The Fog of War has been upgraded to obey the sight visibility for the party members. No more cheating by looking over walls and closed doors in dungeons!

Experience Points
We decided to add a few more ways to gain experience points to increase the regularity that XP is rewarded throughout the game. We've added minor bestiary, exploration, lock, and trap XP rewards. Bestiary XP is rewarded when new entries are unlocked in the Bestiary page in the Journal, and will stop being rewarded if the entry is complete. Exploration XP is given out when new areas and landmarks are discovered in the world.

Glossary
An in game glossary has been added with explanation and definitions of game and combat rules. These entries are hyperlinked so you can easily find information on what you are looking for. You can click directly on keywords in the combat log, or open up the Journal's Glossary page.

Hotkeys

Hotkeys can be assigned to any ability on the hot bar and additionally be access through a quick hotkey menu. We still intend to revise how this system works, but please provide feedback if you like or dislike our direction.

Additional Fixes
•Improved 2D trigger rendering.
•Added new targeting indicators.
•Added a tab menu to quickly change between full screen UI.
•Update the stash UI with separate pages for ingredients and quest items.
•Revised lockpick UI for better clarity.
•Fixed many save and load inconsistencies.
•Fixed issue with perception not effecting the range of spells.
•Characters with reach weapons should now attack at a proper distance.
•Many fixes to placed traps.
•Many, many fixes to spells and abilities.
•Added more hairstyles.
•Added more icons.

Fixed Issues

Save/Load/Persistence
•BB Wizard's Cape is no longer rendered white, this was caused or fixed by Save/Load depending on the situation - Thread Link
•Loading saved games while in combat or with factions turned aggressive no longer persists into the loaded game - Thread Link
•Fixed issues with game options not persisting throughout gameplay and closing and opening the client
•Save/Loading in Lle a Rhemen 02 (the lower area) will no longer cause you to be unable to access certain areas - Thread Link
•Save/Loading no longer causes enemies in the scene to be reduced to 0 DT

Area Design
•Backer NPCs no longer have Missing Strings for their Soul Memory descriptions - Thread Link
•Examinable objects are no longer losing and/or duplicating their icons - Thread Link

Spells/Abilities/Classes/Gameplay
•Dead party members are now being removed from the party - Thread Link
•Perception now properly affects the range of attacks and spells
•Placed Traps are now working properly
•Missed attacks in combat are no longer causing hit reactions and hit SFX - Thread Link
•Characters with reach weapons are no longer moving into melee range when commanded to attack from a distance - Thread Link
•Druid Spirit Shift forms are now attacking properly - Thread Link
•Stone Beetles will no longer stay underground when in combat - Thread Link
•Spells already in BB Wizard's or a looted Grimoire can no longer be inscribed a second time into the Grimoire - Thread Link
•Large parties, especially with Ranger pets or summons, should have an easier time with transitions - Thread Link
•Loading games no longer clears the resting bonus gained from an Inn
•Spiders no longer "teleport" past your front line or moving towards a character they could not have reached - Thread Link

Art
•Rocks near the east side of Dyrford Crossing have had navmesh adjusted to prevent clipping - Thread Link
•Navmesh near the ruins in the southwest of Dyrford Crossing has been cleaned up - Thread Link
•Scouting Circles have new art - Thread Link

Items
•Pollaxes are now being treated as best of Slash/Crush, instead of just Slash
•The BB Wizard's Cloak item is no longer floating significantly out of position
•Minor Stamina potion is now valued less than Major Stamina potion

User Interface
•Abilities shown in character creation update immediately as different classes are selected - Thread Link
•Holding the Tab Key while transitioning no longer places Backer Icons on the screen permanently
•You can now split stacks of Potions, Scrolls, Traps, and other Quick Items - Thread Link
•Steps can no longer be skipped in Character Creation
•Paperdoll models are no longer disappearing from the Level Up and Inventory UI

Other
•Changing keybindings in the control options will now unbind the key you assign from its previous assignment
•The Cyclopedia Bestiary values are now accurate - Thread Link

Known Issues

Save/Load/Persistence
•Save/Load causes the inventory paperdoll not to show weapons and shields until another character is selected - Thread Link
•Fog of War does not persist on Save/Load and transitions - Thread Link
•BB Fighter sometimes becomes invisible after Save/Load - Thread Link
•Uninstalling the game does not remove all files that the game created - Thread Link
•Save/Load causes character shadows to disappear on the East and West sides of Dyrford Village - Thread Link
•Saving a paused game, closing and reopening the client, then loading that game via the Continue causes the game to load in paused - Thread Link
•Memory usage increases after loading the game (closing the client and opening it resets this) - Thread Link
•Memory usage increases after transitions (closing the client and opening it resets this) - Thread Link

Area Design
•Hendyna wanders off to the forest at times and is not at her shop - Thread Link
•The Water Wheel in Dyrford Village seems to be rotating in the wrong direction - Thread Link
•The Temple Skaen entrance is visible on the area map without first moving the statue - Thread Link
•Boar companion is left behind when Medreth leaves - Thread Link

Spells/Abilities/Classes/Gameplay
•Best of Weapons are not showing the proper damage type in the combat log - Thread Link
•Talents Resilient Companion, Faithful Companion, and Painful Interdiction are not working properly
•Charmed/Dominated creatures will attack themselves - Thread Link
•Crystal Eater Spiders, Crystal Eater Spiderlings, and Widowmaker Spiders are bypassing 10 DT

Art
•Hendyna's home has a visual shaking effect when entered and zoomed in - Thread Link
•The Health bar indicators feel somewhat unpolished and appear to overlap the portrait - Thread Link
•Morning Stars (of the non-Fine Quality) are transparent in game and character creation - Thread Link

Items
•The Sabre will sometimes strike for 0.0 damage negating the attack entirely - Thread Link

User Interface
•Paladin's description is missing the word "Health" after the health multiplier - Thread Link
•Savage Endurance tooltip is showing too many decimals - Thread Link
•Accuracy shown in the Inventory and Character sheet do not reflect the bonus for single 1 Handed weapons and Enchant/Mod accuracy effects
•Character Creation buttons can have a significant delay when clicked
•Character Creation attribute allocation arrows continue to make SFX sounds if clicked after they have disappeared - Thread Link
•White damage values in the combat log only display whole numbers and not decimal values (Makes DoT effects misleading)
•Time stamp font is small in when viewing saved games - Thread Link
•Traps and Hidden Secrets change the mouse cursor when hovered over (before they are discovered) - Thread Link
•Saved games are not ordering properly and are sometimes resetting their play time
•Opening and closing the Area Map shifts 2D UI elements (Including character circles) - Thread Link
•Temp Status icons are sometimes appearing during combat (White Squares with Green Circles)
•Stash access in the Shop UI needs to be switched to page format
Click to expand...

Hugin · Jan 4, 2015

bb 392

Backer Beta 392 is up, and there has been many small changes :

Hello, all. Build 392 is now live for the Backer Beta. The Windows and Mac builds are now live. Linux will not be going up until we upgrade Unity and that won't happen until after January 5th, 2015.

Important Changes

You will notice quite a few combat balance changes in this build. Be on the lookout and let us know what you think.

You will notice many UI polish changes. Some screens may even be entirely new (loot screen, I'm looking at you).

Most of the icons are now in the game. There are still a few that are missing, but those should be few and far between.

Some final VO is in the game. You will also notice sound sets are in and hooked up.

Skill system has changed back to a point-buy system.

Talents are now organized during level up.

Important Known Issues

It can be difficult to loot bodies sometimes. It can help to try to loot the bodies toward their feet. One workaround is to do a save/load. The body will turn into a loot bag and you will be able to loot it properly.

Saving with a modal active will cause the modal to appear to be non-functioning. If you deactivate and reactivate the modal a couple of times it will start working again.

Pressing the "Take All" button in the Loot UI, if a lootable body is underneath the "Take All" button, will cause the cursor to get stuck. This can prevent you from opening doors or interacting with objects. To clear this you can do a few things: mouse over a loot container, loot anything, transition, or save/load.

The "proof" mods (e.g. Pierce-proof) are not stacking correctly and will have problems after a save/load. Best to avoid those mods for the time being.

Fixed Issues
If an issue has "Needs Verification" after it. It means a fix has been checked in, but QA hasn't checked it yet. These issues are likely fixed, but a few may fail the verification process.

After loading a game all party members revert to their first weapon set - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Save/Load before transitioning to Dyrford Village causes 0 seconds travel time and a black screen (Workaround in Thread) - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Save/Load causes the inventory paperdoll not to show weapons and shields until another character is selected - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Enchanted Mods disappear after loading the game - Thread Link

Area Design

Korgrak's attacks are not causing recovery - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Force Attacking Medreth, just after attaining the quest, A Cat and Mouse, causes you to be unable to complete the quest - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Can't pick the Pilgrim's Crown plant in the southern central area of Dyrford Village - Thread Link - Needs Verification

The Temple Skaen entrance is visible on the area map without first moving the statue - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Boar companion is left behind when Medreth leaves - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Dengler's Store cannot be accessed after returning to the Dracogen Inn - Needs Verification

Spells/Abilities/Classes/Gameplay

AI does not consider Range bonus from Perception when moving into range to cast a spell - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Dexterity is currently not properly affecting action speed (animation times and recovery times) - Thread Link - Partially Fixed

Exiting Scouting Mode causes a loss of FPS that persists until Load or Transitions - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Hired adventurers spawn inside the player character - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Chanters cannot use the Cautious Attack modal while chanting - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Chanter's talent Ancient Memory causes the party to twitch consistently - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Trap Triggered and other similar bark texts persist for too long - Thread Link

The Goldpact Paladin talent Enduring Flames is causing Flames of Devotion to apply a permanent DoT effect - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Best of Weapons are not showing the proper damage type in the combat log - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Talents Resilient Companion, Faithful Companion, and Painful Interdiction are not working properly - Partially Fixed

Some new class abilities have been added for the druid, fighter, paladin, and wizard. These abilities have missing strings and temp icons - There were a large number of these, they should all be fixed

On death load doesn't function if an entire party is knocked out while one party member is dominated

Art

Scouting Mode causes targeting recticles to appear at character's feet when activated/deactivated - Thread Link - Needs Verification

VFX art shown during Scouting Mode does not align well with selection circles - Thread Link

Male Moon Godlike head 4 is missing a model - Thread Link

The Cladhaliath Spear is not visible in game, only in the paperdoll - Thread Link - Cannot Reproduce

The Health bar indicators feel somewhat unpolished and appear to overlap the portrait - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Items

The Sabre will sometimes strike for 0.0 damage negating the attack entirely - Thread Link - Needs Verification

User Interface

Combat HUD and "Injured, Near Death" indicators do not correctly match character Endurance values - Thread Link - Needs Verification

HUD effects and glowing elements (such as Level up and glowing active ability) show when inventory etc are open - Thread Link - Needs Verification

"Best of" weapons do not display their change in damage type in the combat log when the alternate type is used - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Accuracy shown in the Inventory and Character sheet do not reflect the bonus for single 1 Handed weapons and Enchant/Mod accuracy effects - Needs Verification

Character Creation attribute allocation arrows continue to make SFX sounds if clicked after they have disappeared - Thread Link

Item tooltips often appear behind the inventory and loot UI

Audio

Dyrford Ruins hallway plays the SFX of footsteps splashing through puddles, even though there is no water - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Combat Music is no longer playing - Needs Verification

Other

Mac

Launching the client through steam while running OSX Yosemite causes the client to crash (workaround in thread) - Thread Link - Needs Verification

Known Issues
These issues have been reported by the community, but have not been addressed in the current build.

Save/Load/Persistence

Save/Load causes character shadows to disappear on the East and West sides of Dyrford Village - Thread Link - Open

Saving a paused game, closing and reopening the client, then loading that game via the Continue causes the game to load in paused - Thread Link - Open

Save Files can become unreadable if PC loses power supply while the game is running - Open

Area Design

Critters in the wilderness do not always react to the party - Thread Link - Open

Spells/Abilities/Classes/Gameplay

Some spells and abilities (Jolting Touch, Knockdown, etc...) always display a movement spell icon - Thread Link - Open

Mods affecting attacks are applied multiple times if a character is knocked prone/petrified etc... before the hit frame of an attack - Thread Link - Open

Dexterity is currently not properly affecting action speed (animation times and recovery times) - Thread Link - Partially Fixed

Wizards in character creation are not holding Grimoires - Thread Link - Open

The Bloody Slaughter talent has a blank description - Thread Link - Open

Medreth's Boar Companion is following the party from scene to scene and causing combat issues - Thread Link - Open

Miss/Graze/Hit/Crit Ranges are off by 1 value - Thread Link - Open

Talents Resilient Companion, Faithful Companion, and Painful Interdiction are not working properly - Partially Fixed

If the Ranger or their Companion are knocked out near an enemy while the other is far away, they will repeatedly fall unconscious - Open

If you hire an Adventurer when you have a full party, the Adventurer will be made with no items - Open

Changing difficulty level in-game doesn't scale the number of opponents correctly - Open

Art

Models for Doors, Weapons, Shields, etc... change texture quality/mip at improper zoom ranges - Thread Link - Open

Items held by NPCs can be seen through the Fog of War - Thread Link - Open

The Wizard's Grimoire is held in the offhand even when a weapon or shield are equip in that hand - Thread Link - Open

Items

Cape/Cloak items do not align with character's shoulders and clip through character models - Thread Link - Open

User Interface

Descriptions for spells and abilities presented in character creation and level up screens cannot be scrolled - Thread Link - Open

When wielding a single weapon in your offhand and nothing in the main hand the UI indicates that you are dual wielding - Thread Link - Open

The Area Map in Stormwall Gorge often displays lines through the Fog of War on the outer edges of the map - Thread Link - Open

Feedback is not clear that clicking portraits in shop allows you to compare examined items - Thread Link - Open

Combat HUD occasionally displays a "stuck pip" on the right side of the HUD even though the character is injured - Thread Link - Open

Spell and ability tooltips in character creation display "Right-Click for details" when this function has no effect - Thread Link - Open

UI elements and selection circles can be partially or completely obscured by spell VFX and distortion effects - Thread Link - Open

Culture bonuses are always factored in character creation, even when the user hasn't reached that step in the process yet - Thread Link - Open

Double-Clicking on a character while the game is paused, causes the party's shadows to jitter slightly - Thread Link - Open

Resizing the Combat Log after hiding/expanding the Central HUD allows you to overlap UI elements - Thread Link - Open

Assigned Action Bar Hotkeys are duplicating ability UI and not unassigning previously assigned keys - Thread Link - Open

UI screen borders are shifted offscreen in higher resolutions causing quest updates etc to become clipped - Thread Link - Open

The level up button in the character sheet appears available even if you cannot level up - Thread Link - Open

Paladin's description is missing the word "Health" after the health multiplier - Thread Link - Open

White damage values in the combat log only display whole numbers and not decimal values (Makes DoT effects misleading) - Open

Time stamp font is small in when viewing saved games - Thread Link - Open

Traps and Hidden Secrets change the mouse cursor when hovered over (before they are discovered) - Thread Link - Open

Saved games are not ordering properly and are sometimes resetting their play time - Open

Stash access in the Shop UI needs to be switched to page format - Open

Click to expand...

Nakia · Jan 9, 2015

I have been playing the Backer Beta. My personal opinion is that the devs rushed this update out to us for Christmas. Although we appreciate their doing that there are some bugs some more important than others.
1) You cannot create a custom party unless you kill off the BB party members. There is no problem creating your player character or the sixth member of the party. The bug seems to be in dismissing one of the BB party members. The game hangs when you try to leave the inn.

2) On the world map there are three areas you can go to. The village where you start, Stonewall Gorge and Dyrford Crossing which does not appear at the very start. People have reported issues with transition if they go to Stonewall Gorge before Dyrford Crossing appears on the map. However I tried it recently and it appeared to be working for me.

3) The paladin has a bug when you use Zealous focus. After the battle when he tries to disable the talent it goes into a loop. I have never been able to get him out of the loop but others have reported and posted workarounds. Which didn't work for me but who knows I may have missed something.

There are of course other things but nothing game breaking that I have seen. Combat is still being heavily discussed. I find that Easy modeis just that easy, Normal is harder and does require using tactics. I find it challenging. I haven't played hard and that is where the major discussion lies. Seems there still needs balancing there.

I am enjoying the BB. I was hesitant about trying but there are no spoilers and it gives me a chance to relearn how to play a game that needs some real thinking right from building your player character.

Nakia · Jan 23, 2015

On the Obsidian BB forum we have been told we will have one more Backer Beta. BAdler stated that they do not know how much longer they will keep things open.

I assume this means that any backer who wishes to update his or her pledge should do so now. Currently the devs are working on the PAX build. Two months to go.

eumelzan · Jan 29, 2015

Bought this game. I can't wait!

Nakia · Feb 4, 2015

New Backer Build was released today. Here is the link to the Obsidian thread.
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70228-backer-beta-build-435-is-live/

This may be the last BB . March 26 is not that far away. Hurrah!

The_Curt_Jester · Feb 19, 2015

It looks like the game is going to come out right in a part of the year when I am extremely busy. I'll probably not have much time to play it until a month later.

Taluntain · Feb 20, 2015

Playing games right after they come out isn't something that I subscribe to personally since I don't really enjoy wasting my time on beta-testing games. Pretty much anything released in the last 10+ years needs several rounds of patching to bring it to something resembling an enjoyable playing experience and I'm not really expecting PE to be any different in this regard.

Shardnax · Mar 27, 2015

I've encountered two audio bugs so far, if you don't close the tutorial pop-up the sound loops (quitting to menu and reloading fixes) and sometimes the fade for voices is way off and it sounds distant when the character is on screen. Other than that it's been smooth sailing.

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Veteran

Hugin Gems: 3/31
Latest gem: Lynx Eye

eumelzan Gems: 1/31
Latest gem: Turquoise

Veteran

The_Curt_Jester Gems: 4/31
Latest gem: Sunstone

Shardnax Gems: 6/31
Latest gem: Jasper

Veteran