Obsidian has surprised its fans by releasing an update for the near nine-year-old role-playing game Pillars of Eternity.
The update, spotted by GamesRadar, does not add new content to the game, but makes a number of important bug fixes.
Obsidian released the isometric RPG in March 2015 as a spiritual successor to the Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale series. The developer raised over $4 million on Kickstarter to build Pillars of Eternity two years before. IGN’s Pillars of Eternity review returned a 9/10. “Obsidian (and its Kickstarter backers) have done it: Pillars of Eternity is one of the best RPGs since Baldur's Gate,” we said.
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire followed in 2018, but low sales appeared to have dampened prospects for a third game in the series. Why, then, would Obsidian return to Pillars of Eternity now, while it's busy with the upcoming Xbox RPG Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, and the ongoing Grounded?
Perhaps Obsidian is seeing renewed interest in Pillars of Eternity following the release of Baldur's Gate 3, which appears to have sparked something of a revival of the cRPG genre as well as boosted Dungeons & Dragons.
It seems unlikely Pillars of Eternity 3 is in the works, of course. Last year, Obsidian's studio design director : "I think if it truly was an unlimited budget, I think I would try Pillars 3 because I know what the budget was for [Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire], which was not a whole lot and I have heard from multiple people what the budget was for Baldur’s Gate 3, and I’m not gonna talk about numbers, but if I got that budget, sure, I’ll make Pillars 3."
In a rather innocuous post on the Obsidian forum, the developer signalled the surprise update’s release on the game’s Steambeta branch.
“Greetings Watchers!” Obsidian said. “It has been a long time since we spoke, but I come bearing good news. We have just released a new patch for Pillars of Eternity on the beta branch for Steam. Please let us know if you run into any issues during your time with this updated version of the game.”
As you’d expect, the post was met with a mix of disbelief and excitement from Obsidian’s fans, some of which are daring to dream about a third game. Based on a subsequent post from an Obsidian developer, it seems staff are up for further fixes, too, and called for a wishlist of sorts from players.
And that’s that. Obsidian is updating Pillars of Eternity again, which is an odd thing to say in 2024. What’s next? Perhaps it’ll release a patch for Fallout: New Vegas. Everything’s owned by Microsoft, after all.
Here are the Pillars of Eternity update 3.4.1340 patch notes in full:
General:
- We have updated to Unity Version 2019.4.11.
Navigation:
- Fixed areas that could not be navigated in numerous scenes.
- The lake in Cayron's Scar should no longer be unintentionally traversable when submerged.
Visual and Audio:
- Fixed multiple cases where characters might T-Pose briefly at the beginning of a cutscene.
- Fixed an issue where paperdolls in character creation and inventory screens might appear blurry.
- Overwhelming Wave should more reliably play its visual effects.
- Fixed VFX issues with the Woodskin spell rotating or attaching incorrectly.
- Symbols western chamber of Lle a Rhemen should now properly light up when expected.
- Fixed redundant horn audio playing after the battle of Yenwood.
- Fixed an issue where attempting to open locked containers could play multiple voice lines at once.
- Fixed a handful of cases where dialogue audio wouldn’t play when certain nodes were re-triggered.
Quests and Dialogue:
- Ready the Cannons side quest should now properly update its objectives.
- Dialogue from Buried Secrets quest should no longer allow the player to demand their payment more than once.
- Fixed an issue where multiple barked lines in Gilded Vale could overlap excessively.
- Fixed an issue where Eder’s bark lines in the Temple of Eothas may end abruptly.
- Fixed a case where Calisca could trigger the wrong bark line near the camp inside Cilant Lîs.
Combat and Mechanics:
- Earth Blights should no longer sometimes detach from their selection circles when dominated.
- Scroll of Ray of Fire should now appear correctly and more accurately match the behavior of the Ray of Fire spell.
- Fixed a case where manually resolving stronghold combat could sometimes yield no rewards.
- Fixed a case where prone characters might try to move while prone, resulting in sliding behavior.
- Concelhaut’s Draining Missiles should no longer occasionally show 0.0 damage in the combat log.
- Weapon Specialization: Peasant should now reliably add its damage to unarmed attacks.
- Fixed some cases where the Halt spell might confuse enemy AI, causing them to repeatedly interrupt and re-attempt their own actions.
- Removed errant untargetable Xaurip that could sometimes appear in Dyrford Crossing.
- Fixed a case where Sleafhota might teleport to an alternate location mid-dialogue before attacking the player.
- Attacking Osrya directly will now reliably engage with her revenant and skeleton minions.
- Fixed a case where all survival camping bonuses might appear after spending only a single skill rank on Survival.
User Interface and Interaction:
- Fixed a UI issue where chants could sometimes clip beyond their scrolling frame.
- Fixed a case where the damage type icon on the character sheet might not position correctly.
- Fixed some cases where assigning companions to multiple stronghold missions at once might cause UI issues.
- Quick loading with the crafting or enchanting UI open should no longer result in a permanent black screen.
- Fixed a typo in the description of Animal Companions.
- Fixed an issue where highlighting certain parts of a defeated enemy would not allow you to loot them.
- Doors in some scenes that were difficult to interact with have had their collision revised and should now be more reliable.
- Fixed a case where the final pressure plate in the Temple of Woedica would not appear.
- Examining the wall trophy inside of Elm’s Reach should now be possible.
- Skipping intros when first starting the client should now be more responsive.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
