Obsidian is patching an optional turn-based mode into Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

“One thing that RPG designers can get caught up in is the idea of a design on paper, but what really matters at the end is how it changes the feel of the game.”

- Director Josh Sawyer discusses how Deadfire's turn-based update changes the game.

Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire launched last year as a rather traditional real-time strategy RPG, but soon that won’t be the only genre it occupies. The team is launching an update later this week that gives players the option of playing Deadfire as a turn-based strategy game, a overhaul that, according to director Josh Sawyer, tremendously changes how the game is played.

Sawyer spoke a bit about why the studio decided to add the option in (as an entirely free update for owners of the game, even) in an interview with PCGamesN, noting in the full conversation that the change also serves to fight off some of the fatigue that might be hitting players at this point in the game's lifecycle.

As outlined in the interview, the mode required devs to rework Deadfire’s UI to display turn-orders and some of the fights in the game had to be rebalanced to account for the differences between real-time and turn-based play. Switching on turn-based play has a noticeable effect on how players handle those moment-to-moment encounters as well, Sawyer says.

"Not a lot of players slow down and look at all the armor ratings on enemies in real-time," Sawyer tells PCGamesN. "But in turn-based, if you’re a ninth-level wizard and have every element to cast from and the time to look around the battlefield, there’s a lot more deliberation."