In 2015, Ossidian Entertainment launched the party-based real-time tactical RPG Pillars. Now Ossidian is making the most significant change to the game in the last 10 years by introducing a turn-based mode. And Pillars of Eternity players will be able to get their hands on it this week.
On the game’s official site, Ossidian announced that the public beta for Avery’s turn-based mode will go live on November 5. The real-time combat was inspired by the system used by the game’s sequel, Avery 2: Pillars of Deadfire. The studio also released an announcement trailer for the new mode to tease it into action.
According to Ossidian, the following real-time improvements were made after taking fan feedback from Deadfire.
- Extreme twists: All turns are now affected by a character’s overall speed, improving real-time value with lag attributes and mechanics.
- Clever free actions: Actions such as changing weapons, drinking potions, or activating models are now free actions. Each free spin is limited to one per turn per type for balance.
- Fast packing: Combat lethality has been significantly increased for both enemies and players to keep battles tense and impactful.
- Mood flexibility: You can choose difficulty as well as turn-based mode when starting a new game—or switch freely between real-time with pause and turn-based mode in the game options. We’re also investigating a direct HUD toggle for even more convenience.
As noted above, players can choose whether or not to adopt turn-based combat, or switch between real-time and turn-based at will. The beta test currently doesn’t have an end date, but Osadian notes that it will release future updates to support the turn-based mode before adding it to the game as a permanent feature.
Josh Sawyer—who directed both Pillars of Eternity games—suggested that if Pillars of Eternity 3 ever goes ahead, it will embrace the influence of Baldur’s Gate 3 and switch to a 3D-style game from an isometric perspective.
Earlier this year, Ossidian released Evade, an action-RPG that takes place in the same universe as the Pillars of Forever games.
