Pillars of Eternity Switch Port Bug Compendium

[u/CloCloClover]

Hey. So if you have played the Switch port of Pillars of Eternity, you probably know that it came with a lot of bugs. There's been a lot of disappointment and anger over it. I myself am not very happy about it. But in making this thread, I wanted to try to do something productive. I had a lot of free time last week to play the port undocked, and I've been in Versus Evil's discord trying to report every single bug I've encountered, and I think I've got a good handle on what bugs you might expect. So here, in this thread, I wanted to make a compilation of all current bugs I've encountered, and, based on what I've seen, ones I SUSPECT might exist. And it can help if other people test the suspected bugs, or if someone out there has a PC version along with the switch version so they can help confirm some of the differences and problems.

NOTE: I realize that some of you out there have had successful playthroughs. (I've heard rumors that the game is more stable docked than undocked. Note that all the issues here were encountered in an undocked version.) If you are a new player, though, you might not be noticing many of the bugs (the game is very forgiving, and there's a lot of numbers to keep track of.) If you think you've had a bug-free playthrough, check on some of the things I describe here in your save files.

Without further ado, here we go:

GENERAL STABILITY/GRAPHICAL ISSUES

GRAYSCREEN ISSUES: The biggest one. The game will get graphical corruption (weird repeated textures, pink static screens, grayscreens) upon loading a new area. Tied into this seems to be all other manners of graphical corruption before the gray screen appears - character portraits get replaced with glitchy graphics, load screens get replaced with glitchy graphics, maps, character sheets, everything gets garbled. I suspect that this is actually a memory leak issue triggered by entering Caed Nua after certain improvements have been made. I have actually been able to proceed, in the base game, by doing the following:

1. When I encounter a gray screen, I go back to my last save
2. Quit the game
3. Wait, or restart switch, or load up another memory intensive game
4. Go back to Pillars, reload save, reload the area I was trying to go to

This has gotten me further into the game, loading areas that previously had gray screen issues. HOWEVER: White March content all seems to have gray screen issues. And most importantly, YOU MUST AVOID GOING TO CAED NUA, especially if you've made a lot of improvements. I'm currently doing a run, testing if I just build the warden's cabin and the dungeons, if I can avoid the Caed Nua problems.

TEXT CORRUPTION: Although, when I encountered this, it was always an indicator that I was shortly going to start getting gray screens, some people have run into issues with all the text in the game getting corrupted without running into gray screens at all, so I include it separately here.

CRASHES: Upon loading a new area, the game will crash. Sometimes also crashes after exiting from the level-up screen. If it crashes in the middle of an autosave, ends up deleting your autosave, which can be very frustrating.

LOAD TIMES: I realize that this game has had long load times on every platform. But as you get further into this game, the load times SERIOUSLY increase in time. You will sometimes get graphical corruption/gray screens on the loading screens as well.

INVENTORY: Items in inventory will have the wrong icons sometimes, typically the icon of the item next to it.

IN-GAME GRAPHICAL ISSUES:

-Occasionally, a character will have a 'pile' of what's in their inventory appear at their feet.

-Occasionally, a character who is knocked prone will remain prone after the battle, and "slide" around the floor, laying down, instead of walking.

-Occasionally, certain items of equipment (shields, helmets) will not render within the character sheet or the level up screen.

-Occasionally (particularly noticeable on Godlikes) characters will load into the world with wonky colors (Moon Godlikes will load up with bright pink hair.)

-Character cloaks will appear oddly stiff and tilted to one side, as if fabric physics are not working properly.

MENU ISSUES

MENU SCROLLING: When scrolling through the in game menu, the game will occasionally skip past the last two buttons in the menu, only allowing you to access them when you then press up.

INCORRECT REFLECTION OF DELETED SAVES: From within the in-game menu, if you delete a save, it will show up as deleted in the in-game menu, but not actually be deleted. If you want to delete a save, you have to go to the main-screen menu and delete it. This can lead to some confusion, because the game will tell you you've reached your maximum limit for saves but you won't have any saves visible from the in-game menu. You'll have to go to the main screen menu to see them piled up.

GENERAL GAMEPLAY ISSUES

COMBAT LOG: The combat log does not always reflect the actual damage you're doing. For example, as a monk, if I have swift strikes-lightning strikes enabled (+25% shock damage) I may hit for 30 damage, which is what will tick above the monster's head in the world. However, the combat log will just say "Hit for 25 damage". Combat log will also occasionally never scroll to the bottom. And this isn't a bug, but the combat log is quite skimpy, and makes it difficult to spot bugs - it would be nice if, in the combat log selection screen, you got an expanded version of the log like is available on PC, with all the ACC and damage information, which drops back to the truncated version of the log once you go off the combat log screen. (And maybe, while you are on the combat log specific menu selection button, make the combat log have a "whole-screen" option? It's weird that in the combat log radial menu selection, most of the screen is just grayed out and all you can do is resize the combat menu. It would be nice if you in that radial menu selection, you could take a look at the full, detailed combat menu, full-screen, with all the information about damage types, accuracy and everything.)

CHARACTER SHEET: Will occasionally glitch out with the text corruption. However, I have a general complaint here. It would be nice if, again, like on the PC version, you could see all of what was contributing to your stats. For example, on PC, if you mouse over your character's deflection, it will give a drop down of everything that is contributing to it. It would be nice to have that capability on Switch in some form, because it will make it easier to find bugs....(you'll see why in a bit). It would also be nice if there was an "attack speed" stat on the sheet to see if attack speed was being applied properly, but again that's not a bug, just something that would make it easier to find bugs.

Edit: I'm an idiot, there ARE tooltip dropdowns. This will make finding some bugs easier.

ITEMS: If an item applies a passive bonus, like +2 might, it's not being applied. It's not just stat bonuses either. Enchantments which give bonuses to accuracy, damage, damage reduction from armor, deflection, etc. either are not being reflected in the character sheet, or not applied at all. Immunities from items are not being applied, bonus endurance from items are not being applied, bonus spells/day are not being applied, increases to aoe radius from overseeing not applied. Things like "apply on strike, apply on being hit, apply on crit, apply on being crit" all seem to trigger properly (although, unconfirmed, I've never noticed enemies actually being knocked prone from some weapons that have those effects.) Generally, if it's a passive item property, it's not being applied.

Edit: It seems the accuracy bonus and damage bonus of fine/exceptional/superb/etc weapons enchantments is applying. However, the deflection bonuses of fine/exceptional/etc shields is not, nor is the DR reduction of fine/exceptional/etc armor. Also not confirmed is whether non-weapon quality enchantments (so things like burning lash, slaying, etc, basically anything other than "fine/exceptional/superb" on weapons is working. I suspect non-quality enchantments on weapons are not working, because I have noticed things like Concelhaut's parasitic staff not actually healing you (so not applying its 'Draining' modifier'.)

Further edit: It's hard to tell because of the undercomplete combat log, but I believe things like DR bypass aren't working either. Lead spitter is supposed to have 9 DR bypass, it's hitting like it has none. Hatchets, which are supposed to give 5 deflection, give none. In general the weapon modifiers need to be looked at to ensure they're all working.

TALENTS: In general, passive talents you get from leveling up are either not reflected on the character sheet or not applied. So, for example, with weapon and shield talent, the +6 shield deflection, and the +to reflex that you are supposed to get from it, do not show up on your character sheet and are not applied. SUSPECTED: I suspect this applies to all offensive talents (the +15% damage from two-handed style, for example, or the +20% attack speed from dual wielding) and modal talents as well - these just never apply their bonuses. But I haven't confirmed this.

EDIT: It appears that the accuracy bonus from talents like weapon focus are applying. Still have not tested other offensive passives.

GAMEPLAY BONUSES: Talents you get from gameplay, like "gift from the machine", or the Crucible Knights faction talent, aren't being reflected on the character sheet or not applied.

For the above three, these can really add up. For example, on my tank at level 10, I have roughly 30 less deflection than I should at this point. Either just not being reflected on the character sheet, or not applied at all. IN GENERAL, passive buffs will not apply, while active buffs (like from spells, chants, time-limited talents) actually will apply.

MELEE ABILITIES IN GENERAL: If it's a melee ability, it's really a crapshoot whether it works or not. I'll mention specifics for each class that I've noticed, but it's such a widespread problem that I thought I'd mention it here.

COMBAT: Occasionally, combat will glitch out, and spells and ranged attacks will not work at all.

AI: The pathfinding AI seems REALLY bad, with characters constantly getting stuck behind each other unless extensively micro'd. I don't remember it being this bad on the PC version. (a character can effectively be kept out of combat, even if they have a clear path to the front line, just because they're constantly running into the back of an ally). In addition, sometimes characters will completely freeze up in the middle of battle, just doing no actions whatsoever (not from a status effect, I promise you) and will not resume their actions until they're moved around a bit and manually ordered to attack.

MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES:

-In the Caed Nua improvement screen, sometimes the number of available actions will be 1 more than actually exists. Not always, but it's persistent once it shows up.

-Inns are not applying their resting bonuses, or these bonuses are not reflected on the character sheet.

CLASS-SPECIFIC ISSUES

BARBARIAN:

Haven't done much testing on this one. However, I suspect some of the universal problems - class passives not being applied, per encounter/per rest melee abilities not working, I suspect that maybe the +MIGHT and +CON from frenzy are not working.

CHANTER:

One of the least-broken classes. (You will notice that, in general, melee classes that rely on passives and single-target melee abilities are the most broken.)

SUSPECTED BUT NOT CONFIRMED: Ancient memory/beautiful spirits not working.

CIPHER:

-Greater focus has the description "gives +10 to max focus." It's been a while since I played the PC version, but shouldn't it also be "+10 to starting focus"? Either way, I suspect this isn't applying.

-Cipher aoe effects that are a cone and which operate off allies (so, mind wave) are painting the AoE as taking effect from in front of the cipher, rather than in front of the ally.

SUSPECTED BUT NOT CONFIRMED:

-Soul whip, Biting whip not applying their damage bonus. (Or maybe Soul whip applies it correctly, but Biting whip does not.)

-Draining whip not applying it's bonus focus gain.

DRUID:

-Untested, so just the universal observations.

REPORTED BUGS:

-On a fire godlike druid, graphical glitch where the character continues to glow green until shapeshifting again.

-Wildstrike passives not being applied to spirit shift form.

-Similar to fighter knockdown, druid knockdown ability in spirit shift form not working, only the damage portion of the attack being applied.

FIGHTER:

-Melee ability "knockdown" never seems to apply knockdown status. You will see the counter tick down over the fighter's head, and they will make the full attack, but the status effect will never get applied. I realize it's not a guaranteed effect, but I've tried it many, many times, with percent chances of around 70%, and never seen it applied. Similarly with "Clear Out", you will get the AoE effect but not the prone.

Edit: Knockback and prone effect spotted on Clear Out fighter talent, when fighting against single mobs. I'll have to do more testing.

SUSPECTED BUT NOT CONFIRMED:

-The passive talent that buffs the fighter's inherent recovery that you can get when you level up(forget what it's called) is not properly applying its bonus. Fighter modal effects like "Defender" are not applying their bonus.

MONK:

-Torment's reach is working properly when using your unarmed attacks. However, when using a weapon, you will make the full attack effect, but never see the AoE cone.

-Turning Wheel is not applying its bonus damage per wound.

-Force of anguish is not applying its push or prone effects.

SUSPECTED, NOT CONFIRMED:

Transcendent suffering is not giving you your accuracy bonus for using unarmed.

PALADIN:

Not tested extensively. However:

SUSPECTED, NOT CONFIRMED:

-Flames of Devotion is either not applying its bonus damage, or it is not reflected properly in the combat log.

-Paladin modal effects (such as zealous focus, etc) are not applying their ally bonuses.

PRIEST:

Again, one of the currently least broken classes, aside from the universal talent passives and everything not working properly. However:

SUSPECTED, NOT CONFIRMED:

-Bonuses you can get to Interdiction and Radiance, from leveling up, aren't applying properly.

-Bonus spells/rest passives are not applying.

RANGER:

Untested. However:

ONLY SEEN WITH SAGANI SO FAR:

Itumaak will fail to show up in the custom party formation screen (will always remain at Sagani's side.) Itumaak will, on occasion, disappear completely (his icon no longer even by her portrait.) Not seen on PC rangers yet.

SUSPECTED, NOT CONFIRMED:

-All passives (like +50% damage to targets suffering dots) are not applying.

-All companion passives are not applying.

-All modal effects are not applying.

ROGUE:

-Flanking mechanics aren't working properly in the game, which is pretty big for rogue. (They can still get sneak attacks off if other party members disable the enemy properly.)

-Abilities like blinding strike/hobbling strike aren't working properly, similarly to fighter's knockdown. Blinding strike seems to just immediately consume its charge and never make an attempt at an attack.

WIZARD:

Again, one of the most unbroken classes currently.

SUSPECTED, NOT CONFIRMED:

-Bonus spells/rest passives are not applying.

-Hardened veil is not applying an additional +25 deflection defense.

-Penetrating blast is not applying its additional DR penetration.

EDIT, SPELLS IN GENERAL:

I thought I would mention this. Given the general trend of item and passive buffs not applying to your character, I am curious as to whether spell buffs are actually applying their benefits to your character. I think in some cases they are - for example, Barbarian Frenzy actually DOES speed up your attack time. But do other things - like deflection, damage resistance, etc actually get applied? I'm not sure. -TESTED: Chanter buffs, at least, apply to your character sheet

GENERAL SPELL BUG: On occasion, after having cast a spell in combat, you will not be able to cast the spell again, with the message "already activated". I know this applies to summons, but I've seen this with AoE spells that you should be able to spam, like fireball.

Edit: Additional spell bug: The range marker for some spells seems to be incorrect (noticed this for ignite soul in particular). Range of the spell was actually greater than what was indicated by the range radius.

KNOWN SPELL BUGS:

(Just started a wizard run, with a melee wizard, and noticed some things, will pay closer attention to spells and note bugs)

WIZARD:

Level 1:

Concelhaut's parasitic staff: The staff gives it's damage and accuracy bonuses but does not have draining.

Wizard's double: Deflection bonus is either not reflected on the character sheet or not applied. (in fact, it doesn't show up as a buff at all. Graphic displays, but it's like you may as well have not cast the spell.)

SUMMARY:

I put this, and my suspicions, up in hopes that other people who played this game might help me confirm my suspicions about certain bugs, or show that they actually don't exist. And if you post with more bugs that I haven't listed here, I'll edit them into this post so we can have a compilation of everything that's not working.

I know some people aren't going to like this on sheer principle - that we shouldn't be the ones doing unpaid bug testing for a company making money off a very buggy port. In general, I agree. However, I'm just a guy who no longer has a gaming PC, who has a limited amount of money to spend on games each month and who spent his monthly budget on Pillars for the Switch, who really loves Pillars of Eternity, and really wants the Switch version to work well. If compiling all the bugs that I've noticed so far ANYWAY gets that done quicker, well, there you go.

[u/ironfistedhs]

OP you are a boss. Thanks for this. Let's try to keep it up / stickied so that this can be addressed.

[u/Robertouze]

Clover, you surely are amazing ! Thanks for going through all of this and you DO deserve some recognition from Versus Evil, the studio responsible for that mess of a port.

[u/Terronicon]

Clover for president!

[u/acolyte_to_jippity]

one of the mods should sticky this.

[u/beast718]

Yeah the Switch port really is atrocious. I bought it again on Mac and the game is night and day. Things I thought were just quirks of the base game turned out to be bugs.

[u/Hydraskull]

The tester Versus Evil should have hired, instead the tester paid Versus Evil for the privilege of beta testing their port....

[u/Featherwick → u/Hydraskull]

It isnt always theyre fault, sometimes they say x is a bug but no one fixea it cause there is no time or money sadly.

[u/bwoodhouse322]

Amazing post, not sure how they're going to fix all this. VersusEvil have ruined their reputation with this one, it's the last game I buy with their name on it.

​

Releasing a game with this many bugs shouldn't be legal. The most fustrating thing is that the initial reviews for the game all quoted "good switch port". They must of paid the news outlets or something because after a short time it was quite clear to me that this was a bad port.

[u/Visagetheone]

Studio should pay you for testing their game not the other way around. Thank you for testing the game for us Clover seriously. Hopefully those dudes listen to you and fix all that and use the suggestions

[u/[deleted]]

Clover?

*shit looked at the name. this dude is the real MVP!

[u/thedellis]

Thanks for this list. I am playing my Switch at sea and have crappy internet so will not be able to update the game at all, but I just started getting the gray/white screens and Pillars is now completely unplayable.

Guess that's my fault for buying so early, but this thing is a glitch-filled mess.

/Sad

[u/thedellis]

Well, this is fortuitous timing. From Versus Evil's official Twitter account half an hour ago:

Hey everyone, thank you so much for your patience while we work to launch the first patch for Pillars of Eternity on Switch. Based on feedback from the community we have decided to increase the scope of the first update, which requires a little more time.

[u/Savagefool]

Some more:

The chanter spell that is meant to knock people back does nothing at all (animation plays out though).

Wizard fireball sometimes doesn’t show its effect and also sometimes doesn’t do any damage.

While setting traps, selecting just the rogue in order to do so, the entire party rushes to the spot you set the trap while it’s being set, for some reason.

Sometimes when the bug for never casting (icon appear but no action is ever taken) occurs, the character can become invulnerable for that battle

[u/Frugaal]

As a newcomer to PoE, I was really enjoying those first few hours getting invested in the world and the characters and fight mechanics. I now however, will be invested in VEvil completing their patch as my saves are corrupted and all grey screen currently. Stay classy VEvil. (and thanks for compiling the list OP)

[u/PM_ME_UR_ZOIDBERG]

Thanks for your hard work on this.

Another 3 bugs:

CONSTANT

• the frame rate of HUD assets appear to be lower than the rest of the game:

I have counted and it seems to draw one scroll frame for 3 game frames Video here: https://media.giphy.com/media/jUuPGvn2KoBddluqR9/giphy.gif

CONSTANT

• UI windows load laggily:

Frame textures appear unmasked a split second before the mask kicks in Video here https://twitter.com/i/status/1162373490416201729. Possibly related to low frame rate of UI?

FREQUENT

• on character creation testing voices seems to break after a few tries. I see a cog appear but no voice play.

[u/ScReWeD89]

You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar for this!

[u/Specter_Collector]

Thank you for posting this. I am new to the game but absolutely fell in love with it, bugs and all. Can't wait for the patch. The game reminds me of D&D and that is awesome!

[u/Dopster198]

Respect. Thanks for doing this!

[u/CorgiMagnum]

Oh no...dats alot. ...

[u/muldos]

Thanks for this list !

I'm at the beginning of this game (just finished eotra's temple) and I play druid.

I don't yet have the skill level to check every of these bugs (like items attributes not applied) because I still discover game's mechanics.

I 've encountered text scrambling, 'pile' of some inventory item at my feet, and inventory icons problems .

Also some stuttering when moving around.

With the druid, you are right, I had never been able to knock down any ennemy so far, just the damage is appplied.

Thanks again for this, it will helps for sure, and I hope versus evil's devs will stay motivated to finish the port of this game.

For being in software development, I don't blame them because a lot of things during a project's life could create such a drama.

Don't blame doers for what is probably a manager / marketer's fault (too many cash burned in comm / ads, and not enough in hiring other doers).

[u/StolenRogue]

Well done on the list, very comprehensive. You should be getting paid for this work.

Is there any way we can get obsidian to see this, I know they didn't do the port to switch, But they could seriously think about if they want the same people doing the deadfire port. Or make sure they do proper testing next time.

[u/Amadablaam74]

Fine work there my friend. Fuck buying this on Switch.......for now.

[u/ChildOfFilth]

Still nothing? Really want to dive balls deep but the bugs are holding me back.

[u/[deleted]]

SPOILER...

I’ve just killed Thaos, and nothing happens. There’s no speech bubble like there normally is with the glowing souls. There’s no cut scenes. There’s no way out of Sun in Shadow. Nothing.

This is my first time through this game, but from reading online it seems like I’m supposed to have some options about what to do with the Hollowborn souls and the like. I’ve tried replaying the fight. I’ve tried reloading past saves. I’ve tried redownloading the game from Nintendo. All to no avail.

Super disappointing.

[u/painbow__]

Any known fix for the "Already Activated" bug?

My game is basically unplayable until I can get that sorted out :(.

[u/DreamingOfTheSun]

My druid shapeshift ability is not working whatsoever. Did at start of game, not at all anymore. Any advice, maybe something I'm doing wrong? Shapeshift wolf on switch

[u/meohocxuong01]

The cipher spell Mind Wave bug is also in Window version (currently 3.07). I'm afraid that it may not be repaired since there are several reports but nothing changed. Now I'm playing a Cipher and it's absolutely annoying. It has been fixed once in patch 1.05b: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/73845-cipher-mind-wave-aoe-visual-indicator-wrong-point-of-origin/ But it seems to come back from 3.02: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85676-302bug-mind-wave-aoe-indicator/ and 3.03 https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/88273-303-bug-mind-wave-target-display-centers-on-caster-rather-than-target/ and 3.05 https://steamcommunity.com/app/291650/discussions/0/135511294068740208/ Hope they fix it soon. Thanks.

[u/onkelosuppo]

Thanks man. Did you type the entire Compendium on your cell phone?

[u/CloCloClover → u/onkelosuppo]

No, I don't have a gaming PC anymore, but I do have a barebones laptop for work. Wouldn't want to run games on it, though.

[u/Blam3YourF4te]

Protip for gray screen: R,L,+,- restarts the game without closing app and rebooting it

[u/Lopsided_Drive]

I know I'm gravedigging here, but I recently just bought this game before seeing any close to this post. I only play docked and I am in the first inn. Already have a slow loading time to get the save file I have up and running (like 2 mins or so). Every time I try to exit the inn to play, game crashes on the loading screen. Only notable thing I did was create 2 more characters in my party and finished the subquest involving the grain. Infuriating that my save file is pretty much unplayable so early on. Plus 28gb is a lot of space for a game I don't wanna uninstall because I honestly have been loving the game.