Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Developer Livestream, Beta Patch 2.0.0 Available

Obsidian Entertainment's game director Brandon Adler and producer Alec Frey have recently participated in a Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire livestream, where they showcased some bits of the upcoming Beast of Winter DLC and talked about the features coming to the game in the 2.0 update, while also answering some user questions. You can watch the VOD below:

The beta version of the 2.0 update is now also live on both Steam and GOG, so if you're interested, you can check some of these new features out for yourself. Here's an excerpt from the extensive patch notes:

Magran's Fires - New challenges and old favorites have been added for players that want a difficult experience with a twist. These can only be done on Path of the Damned difficulty.
  • Triple Crown
    • Expert Mode
    • Trial of Iron
  • Solo
    • Cannot recruit companions, sidekicks, or adventurers
  • Berath's Challenge
    • Any party member Knocked Out for 6 seconds is Killed
    • Cannot flee from combat
  • Magran's Challenge
    • The game cannot be paused
    • The game time cannot be slowed
Essence Interrupter - A new Hunting Bow created by you, the community, that has been infused with animancer technology to provide interesting effects to attacks.

Major Issues
  • Fixed an issue where users would crash upon getting into combat with Cave Grubs.
  • Fixed an issue where users would crash upon getting into combat with the Giant Cave Grub.
  • Fixed an issue where users would crash after leaving the pre-Ukaizo god Scripted Interaction.
  • Fixed an issue where solo Rogues could instantly win ship boarding combat by using Smoke Veil.
  • Fixed various issues where interactables would only highlight from certain angles or positions.
  • Fixed an issue where some users would crash after declining to help Berath during the Prologue.
  • Fixed an issue where a save file would be deleted if the player created a save, didn't move, then saved on the same file.
  • Fixed an issue where leveling a companion could turn the player character into a duplicate of the companion.
Companions/Crew
  • Fixed an issue where Pallegina's Exalted Focus buff would stay on the party after she was removed from the party.
  • Fixed an issue where the Crookspur Archer SI was only using Xoti's reaction even if she wasn't in the party.
  • Fixed an issue where Monk Xoti was dealing less base damage than what was intended.
  • Fixed an issue where some players would still see Baltia in Motare o Kozi as well as on their ship after recruitment.
  • Fixed an issue where Mirke would come back to life if the player had killed her and later spoke to Aeldys.
  • Fixed an issue where Aloth could gain infinite negative reputation with Serafen.
  • Fixed an issue where the Watcher could gain infinite reputation(positive and negative) with Maia in a conversation with Fleet Master Okaya.
  • Fixed an issue where Eder would still have dialogue on Vilario's Rest even if he was dead.
  • Fixed an issue where players could ask Rekke about Eder even if Eder had not been recruited.
  • A "Serafen wants to talk" option now appears after completing A Sorcerer and a Gentleman.
User Interface
  • Fixed an issue where the skill assist tooltip progress bar was populating incorrectly on its first activation.
  • Fixed an issue where Berath's Wrath would display incorrectly on character status windows.
  • Fixed an issue where negative effects would permanently display a negative effect timer.
  • Fixed an issue where some players would get a blank Enemy Defeated window after winning a ship battle.
  • Fixed an issue where the Crafting UI would show players being able to craft more food than they have materials available.
  • Fixed an issue where modals would not display active or inactive properly when one was on cooldown and another was clicked.
  • Fixed an issue where skill indicators in Scripted Interactions would display when playing on Expert Mode.
  • Fixed an issue where players could have more than the max value of ship supplies by looting the items and putting them in personal inventory.
  • Fixed an issue where players could enchant items belonging to vendors while they were in the trade section of the store UI.
  • Ship injury count label refreshes when a character recovers and on load.