Pillars of Eternity embarks on The White March today, Patch 2.0 released

The first part of Pillars of Eternity’s ‘White March’ expansion has been released today, inviting your adventuring party to venture inside Durgan’s Battery.

This imposing fortress has befallen mysterious misfortune, and the dwarves who used to forge weaponry there appear to have been wiped out. According to the new trailer (below), your chaps will also be visiting Stalwart Village and a place called Russetwood.

This expansion also gives Pillars of Eternity characters a higher level cap (from 12 to 14), adds new abilities, new ‘Soulbound’ weapons, and introduces a pair of new party members; a rogue and a monk.

The release of The White March (Part 1) coincides with Patch 2.0 for the game as a whole. This introduces a number of new changes and features which can be enjoyed by everybody (not just those who own the expansion). A full set of 2.0 patch notes can be read here, with the main additions listed below.

• Companion AI – You may now set your companions to use AI. For those of you that do not want to micromanage your party, you may now choose to have the AI perform basic commands for you. You can activate and deactivate the AI control at any time, so you can still have ultimate party control when you need it. Each class has specialized AI packages and we will be adding more in the future.
• Improved Creature AI – Creatures and NPCs will now act more intelligently and make better use of their abilities and spells.
• Character Retraining – You may now retrain your character and modify their stats for a small fee.
• Individual Stealth – You may now place individual party members into scouting mode. If some of your party enters combat you will no longer have your entire party leave stealth.
• Range Indicators – There are now range indicators to let you know the casting range of spells and abilities. Now you will know if your wizard is going to move before he casts that Fireball. =)
• Accuracy Indicators – You are now shown the chance to hit on all attacks, abilities, and spells by mousing-over a potential target.

I’ll be having a look at the White March, so you can expect a PC Invasion review in the next few days.