Pathfinder Online: A sandbox fantasy MMO

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-a-fantasy-sandbox-mmo

Now this is an MMO I wouldn't mind paying a subscription for if and only if they deliver on what they say the game is going to be. I'm all for persistant worlds, but I don't know if their servers are going to be able to handle all players building cities. That said, Fog and the Eldership of Gaiscioch could name their own city, what would it be called?

1. No Grinding- Pathfinder Online uses a skill training system like that of EVE Online. You train skills by choosing what skill you want to train and allowing the time required to elapse. You don't train any faster by farming mobs or spamming your abilities than you do exploring the world, role playing with your friends, or even being offline. You will need to complete certain achievements to complete a skill and open up new avenues of training, but time-based training means you always get full value from your purchased game time whether you're casual or 'hardcore', an adventurer or crafter, or one who enjoys a lot of roleplaying chat or one who spends much of their time in combat.

2. No Classes- Unlike other games that give you a narrow range of abilities as you train your class, in Pathfinder you gain levels in different Roles based off what you have trained.

3. Player Structures- Build your own homes, taverns, farms, and even cities! The Pathfinder Online world will be filled with places players can use to build and customize their own homes, businesses and communities.

4. Freedom of Allegiance- Unlike games that give you a few factions to pick from like Alliance vs. Horde, in Pathfinder Online you can join a vast array of organizations run by players, create your own organization, or even be a lone wolf! Fight for your friends, your ideals, power, profits, or personal freedom. The choice is yours. The alliances, the betrayals, crushing defeats and glorious victories are all real, meaningful, and player-driven.

5. More Than A Gankfest- Unlike other Open World PVP MMO's currently on the market, Pathfinder Online actively discourages meaningless PVP. A meaningful alignment system that actually offers mechanical advantages to lawful and good aligned organizations, and a functional bounty system that allows the player to choose which players and organizations can collect the bounties they set discourages random and meaningless killing. Beyond this, the admins are taking a hard stance against 'griefing', in which players specifically seek to ruin the experience of other players, often through using game mechanics in ways that weren't intended. Griefing in PFO can be a bannable offence.

6. Real Battles- Large scale combat won't be the total chaos most MMO players are used to. PFO will make use of a formation system that gives groups significant bonuses for fighting in formation and coordinating their ability usage.

7. Less Tedious Crafting- Crafting won't be done by sitting and watching your character create the same recipe over and over. First you build the structure you need for the kind of crafting you want to do, like a sawmill, bakery, or smithy. Then you fill out work orders that your NPC subordinates execute for you. Meanwhile, you can go do other things, or later in the game's development there may be activities you can do to help the process along. PFO will also launch with both traditional resource harvesting and camp-based harvesting.

8. More Meaningful PVE- NPCs aren't all just sitting there in groups which never move, never change in size, and respawn every few minutes. There will be random NPC infestations that escalate in severity if not dealt with. For instance, a goblin camp left undealt with may turn into a goblin tribe that begins attacking your harvesting camps. Leave dragons, vampires, or giants alone long enough and they may attack your town. This creates a need to work together to deal with these threats and generates demand for players who train abilities specialized for hunting NPC types like vampire hunters and dragon slayers.

9. All Players are Useful- This won't be like games where a new player has 49 health and a veteran has 49,000. The attacks from that new player won't automatically miss the veteran. A new player will be weaker, but still able to make a meaningful contribution to combat. As a sandbox where group sizes aren't limited, this means all players are useful, and don't have to segregate themselves by level.

10. Trade is Meaningful- In Pathfinder Online players must manually transport items to their intended destination. Most shops are player-run, and there will be goods more abundant in or even exclusive to certain regions. Merchants, traders, and even auctioneers are all viable professions.

As much as I love Pathfinder, when I first heard of the MMO I was thinking, " meh." But what you've posted has piqued my interest... Greatly. As for the city name.. Foggy Bottom, unless that's his adult film name. :)

I have been following this game since I first heard mention of it. I hope that they deliver on what they promise. Although it will be strange having a game based off of D&D (which pathfinder is based off), not having classes.

See, THIS sounds amazing. It sounds quite like a modern, up-to-date version of Ultima Online, and that would be the game to end all other games for me! And I agree, I would have no problem paying a subscription for this. *EDIT After actually clicking the link in OP...* Wow, so the Kickstarter rewards are pretty amazing, IMO. It starts getting interesting at the $400 mark (which granted, is a bit steep), where they name a Location in the game after you, with some Lore, and a signpost, and an achievement for visiting this location. I think that is really cool. Then if you have really deep pockets, you can get an item or even a SPELL named for you, and at the really high end, get yourself a Tavern on the main Road with an NPC you design and everything. I can just picture Gaiscioch Tavern, with the green sign swinging in the wind...so cool.

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Crafting sounds similar to that of Puzzle Pirates (minus the fun puzzles). Even if you are making the same stuff, you are filling work orders for other players who want the materials created for building whatever. I enjoyed being able to have "jobs" in Puzzle Pirates as well, where a player could go be employed by someone's shop, do some of the puzzle every so often that determined the quality and quantity of work accomplished over x amount of time, and then collect pay for the work put in.

Checked it out. The game looks potentially fun. I like the Pathfinder world and RPG. However, the thing that stops me from seriously considering a Kickstarter backing is the rewards. If I was going to give them $500+, then I would expect to receive a lifetime sub and not a 3-month sub. The other rewards are nice, but that is the meat of what I would consider true appreciation from them for providing that much in advance funding.

I see where you're coming from Crash, but PERSONALLY I would rather have what they are offering over a lifetime sub. I don't expect the full monthly subscription to be very steep, I would imagine 10 to 15 bucks as they have a hybrid sub/micro transaction model in mind. For me, having something in the live game world named after me with lore and an achievement compelling people to go read it is pretty sweet. Now, I'm not about to drop something excessive like 1000 bucks, but 400? I could perhaps be swayed... What they should really do is offer something like what you're looking for in addition to the current options, simply to appeal to a wider audience.

Definitely, Ralcore, I was not stating that they should not offer what they are currently offering. Either in addition to, or an either or thing would be great. $500 was a number I kind of just estimated as being about double what a lifetime usually costs and therefore perhaps financially worth it to them to offer it in this format. It could easily be a higher amount. Temporary thread hijack - part of what I like about lifetime subs is: 1) If I want to play the game for that long then I can not be bothered with paying for subs even once a year, one easy transaction ever - it feels like a buy to play option at that point. 2) It is showing support because I give the company an initial cash injection when it is most needed - that is, when it is attempting to recoup initial development and rollout costs. 3) Giving the company an initial cash injection that is higher than a sub rate raises the amount of initial income and thus says to the executives and investors that this game is worth potentially more revenue in the long run. Therefore, the team dedicated to keeping the game running, fixing bugs, future development, etc. is significantly determined by this initial public offering of the game. Essentially, giving them more money upfront and less later helps to guarantee that more staff and attention is lavished on the game than it might otherwise receive. 4) I save money in the long run if I am going to stick with the game. 5) I like the idea that I do not have to dedicate as much time to the game each month to feel I am getting my money's worth for that month's subscription. Even though I technically paid for it in advance, it has a positive psychological effect on my use of time and allows me to feel less pressure to focus instead of diversify my spare time interests.

My issue here is that there won't be multiple servers. Everyone will be on the same server. Even if everyone isn't building cities and businesses and whatnot, how will they keep it stable?

Well I don't know anything for certain, but in Ultima Online you could place houses, towers, keeps and castles anywhere in the world (outside of towns/dungeons) there was space. In time, they even offered customizable houses, rather than the static designs (these were placed as a bare Plot, then you would build your home on that spot). This sounds like a lot of info to be sent from the server to the client, but the way they did it in UO was similar to what they do with culling in WvW...they load the structures from the center tile, so you know there's SOMETHING there, and when you get within X range, it loads fully so you can see what is actually there. I'm sure someone could offer a more technical explanation, lol. Now, UO is from the 90's, so NOW I would imagine they have a much better method to limit the data that needs to be transferred, but that's the kind of thing I would expect them to do. Plus, having one "Server" is not what I think they intend to do, or at least not in so many words. They will have one WORLD, comprised of multiple servers which run alongside each other and Mobiles can pass through them seamlessly (this is also just a guess). In UO you could see the server lines on a third party mini-map, and you MIGHT stumble or stutter momentarilly as you cross the line but to the point where it was barely noticed, if at all. As this game sounds JUST SO MUCH like UO, I have to assume the development team were fans and are trying to bring back the same type of gameplay and experience, and may use similar - if drastically updated - methods and design features. **This post is 99% Speculation ;)**

One "server" usually means one "world". The most frequent implementation of this is to have a server farm that implements a rule that states that when a zone reaches x capacity of players to open up an additional instance of that zone and start putting people in there. DCUO has such an implementation. At low pop times everyone is always in the same zone together. At high pop times there can be anywhere from 1 - 3 instances of a given zone which you can freely switch between to play with the people you want to play with.

I also been following this for a while. Actually have a crowd forger buddy pledge in so I hope that it goes through. To answer a couple of question I read above one is talk about life time subs well here what was said on the message board when it cam up there first talk about the true cost of a life time subscription if you consider that Eve another sandbox game after 5 year many folk that started eve are still playing: Life time for theme park games are more reasonable since folk rarely play 5+ years so a life time can logically only be 2-3 year at most. Assuming a future discount of about 4% per year (This is the current rate for long-term loans with little risk of default), and a 12-month subscription cost of $100, the fair price of a permanent subscription would be $2500. If we try to include an estimate for inflation and the fact that inflation will drive future costs higher, the price goes up. If we discount based on the typical rates for small business loans (6-8% per year), the price goes down. If we estimate inflation at about 2-4% per year, those two effects are roughly a wash. In other words, $1000 is less than half of what a true lifetime subscription is worth. it was follower By Ryan Dancey comment: The problem with offering a lifetime subscription is twofold. First, there's a sticker shock issue. People who don't understand the kind of math that DeciusBrutus just did see a figure like $2,500 and think "that's crazy, and if they are that crazy on price, what else are these people crazy about"? It makes us look stupid in the eyes of certain people. The second issue is that anytime you do "lifetime" anything, it locks you in to a whole set of assumptions which may not remain true. And when the time comes (and it seems to me, it inevitably comes) when you have to break what seems like a promise, especially to someone who paid you a lot of money up front, that creates tremendous ill-will. If we don't have "lifetime" subscriptions, we also don't have "forever promises" to keep either

» Edited on: 2013-01-04 20:50:21

Main thing I am loving from the list of features is that eventhough it is a PvP world, there is repercussions. For instance, Marrra LOVES crafting and being a merchant if she can do it in a game and this you could do it and oh my.. I was just ganked.. Bounty up, go nuts boys :D *dust hands off and goes back to crafting* :P Me on the other hand.. I just love the whole concept and I hope the Kickstarter goes through to help the project along. Either way, it may well be the next sub game for me to play until then. We lack the funds but a game like that would be worth it. Part of me wishes in a way that D&D Online was like PFO. It would have made for the perfect D&D game. Not to say D&D Online was bad but it could have been designed better/differently (We played there almost a year if I remember rightly).

From what I've seen the graphics don't really look all that great, which is disheartening. I will say this about Goblinworks and the one server to rule them all point: the dudes at the helm of this game came from CCP, who developed EVE Online, and are well-versed in created a game with one server. How they justify a game space with who knows how many cities and towns and players all in one server, with the game starting out in just one small region of the game's planet (The River Kingdoms is pretty big but it's not THAT big), is another story. I do like what they are saying about being whatever the heck you want to be, whether it's a Blacksmith, Highwayman, Noble, Pirate, Dungeon Crawler, etc. I have no idea what system they will implement, and how close to the Pathfinder Rules System they'll be as far as classes are concerned. Based on what they are touting I don't think they'll stick to the restrictions of the various classes, although they might do it as many Archetypes of the base classes. I really don't know. I do know that being given the setting (The River Kingdoms), being adept at navigating waterways and forests will be key as there are countless rivers and woodlands (Hence the River Kingdoms name). It's a lawless frontier, home to exiles, vagabonds, criminals and people surviving to get by. I think it's a great area to have a game like this. I ran an Adventure Path for the table top version of Pathfinder in the River Kingdoms for 2 years and I have extensive knowledge of the region, its history, inhabitants, etc. If this game comes out and it's decent, I will definitely play it, and I'd absolutely love to get in there with a contingent of family members to found our own city and rule it the Gaiscioch way!! So after seeing DDO and other attempts at D&D type games I have my doubts that PFO will succeed, but in concept I am totally in love with it and want it to succeed moreso than I wanted SWToR to succeed, which is saying a boatload given my eternal love for Star Wars and the KotOR setting. We shall see.

It's enlightening, to me at least, after I read into the blog about the Gathering/Crafting system that it reminds me of Star Wars Galaxies and to me, that is a big thumbs up, as I loved their crafting. I also read about the Contract System and Dungeon System, loved both. I really love the whole Bounty Concept. In a nutshell, that part alone sold me.

Oh dear. I just read this excerpt from the Goblinworks website about aspects of the Pathfinder Online Game. This talks about the consequences of Character Death: "When your character dies, your corpse will turn into a soulless husk on the spot. At the moment of death, a timer will begin to count down giving you a minute or two before anything else happens. If a nearby friend has the necessary magic, you may be restored to life right on the spot without any further drawbacks. If you are alone, or have no companions capable of resurrecting you, you'll have to deal with the fallout. At the expiration of the countdown timer (or earlier if you opt to end the counter prematurely), your character will revive at a specific location that you've helped predetermine. Determining this location is a process we call "soulbinding." You will be able to select the location that your character is soulbound to, but only certain locations have the requisite soulstone needed for the binding. The distance between the location of your dead husk and your soulbinding point will often prove meaningful. Your character will re-enter play at the soulbinding point holding and wearing whatever gear they had equipped when they died, so you won't have to start without your armor, or the weapons, wands, or staves you were using. However, until you return to your husk, you are in danger of losing the rest of your inventory. If you get to your husk before anyone else, you'll be able to get all your stuff back. However, if another player finds your husk before you do, they'll be able to loot it. They won't recover everything that you had in your inventory—just a random selection—but the rest of your inventory will be destroyed and removed from the game. If you die surrounded by allies, they can't just pick up all of your equipment for you, as doing so would cause some of it to be removed from the game, but your allies could attempt to defend your husk until you return to it, so that you lose nothing but travel time." Again. Oh dear. Well that's an incentive to not die, or to go afk in the game without logging out. EVER.

My, interesting death penalty. It is sounding more and more like Fantasy Eve Lite, or I suppose Everquest. I wonder if they will will reinvent corpse dragging.

I wouldn't worry about the death penalty honestly. Some of us were discussing this in RC last night, and this is similar to the system Ultima Online used (yes, I will keep comparing this to UO, sorry lol). The thing is, gear in these games is not like the gear we've become used to seeing in MMO's - gear requiring hours, days, weeks+ to acquire. In games like UO, and the game I imagine Pathfinder turning out to be, the gear people will be looting off you is easily replaced. Obviously, some items will be worth more than others, and its certainly better NOT to die, and to instead kill and loot your enemy, but its not like you're gonna lose all sorts of Phat Lewts just from a death or three. Besides, they need to channel to loot, which can be interrupted by your buddies, and if you're out soloing, you will have anticipated your possible demise, and geared yourself accordingly. Leave the fancy stuff at home for when you're less likely to lose it, or use your 'Threads' or whatever they call it to bless said fancy gear, so it cannot be looted.

I've discussed this with friends and they are convinced this game will be nothing more than vaporware. They needed a kickstarter just for the technology demo to get backers. Do you agree/disagree that this game will see the light of day?

While I would like it to, they have 9 days left on this kickstarter, and are barely over 50%. So I don't have any hopes of them reaching another 500k or so in 9 days, when it took them since late November (I believe) to get the 500k they have now. Perhaps Elder Scrolls online will end up being the sandbox MMORPG that people will flock to. I don't think that the Pathfinder kickstarter will reach its goal, which makes me sad as this does look interesting.

Personally, I think they will reach their Kickstarter goal. The first one for the tech demo, they only asked for 50k, and ended up getting 300k. That tells me there are plenty of people willing to support a project they have faith in. On top of that, the TIMING of their kickstarter is the only reason they have not yet reached their 1M goal. This is not the time of year to spend a bunch of money for a promise of something years down the line, but still they're gotten around 60% of that the last time I checked. With over a week left, I think we will see them close the gap quickly, as more people get over their Holiday expenses, or feel the window closing on the Kickstarter bonuses. They have a great team working on this, and after reading their Blog posts (and yes, I suppose they can say whatever they want there, but I take it at face value), I understand their reason for reaching out for assistance from the community rather than go to the big investors. Big investors bring with them bigger demands, and will force compromises on the Developers that they would rather not have to make. By allowing the project to be funded by the community, we become the ones they are answerable to. I think this is going in the right direction, but only time will tell in the end.

It not over as they say until the fat lady sings. The developers have a plan and a back up plan to the plan. From the start they been expecting the big push to happen in the last days of the kick starter it not until then they going to bring out the big surprises that going to be too good to turn down. remember also many folk hit the remind me button and do not go back until they get the email to tell them time about to expire. They have to backer this is just to get the game out faster then the standard development time line. It also allows them to get feed back from the folks most interested in the game the player. It something Pazio has done and now goblin work continues this trend. here the quotefrom an interview with massive: The Kickstarter we're running now is to help us make the game bigger, better, and faster. We are in the sweet spot for game design where extra staff means shorter timelines and richer features. Raising money above what we've already had committed lets us add additional staff. Success in this Kickstarter accelerates and broadens the scope of the game; it won't determine whether it is completed. We are going to make this game no matter what. As to the demo that a pre alph foootage think about how much a game changes from alpha to beta and this is pre alpha

» Edited on: 2013-01-05 11:40:13

I can't wait to see what this game will look like in it's beta stage, much less the finished product. I wanna test it. :3

I am looking forward to this in a big way. I love Pathfinder and I like what they want to achieve here.

big news today Unity engine they going to have the game available for mac users

I'm looking forward to this as well.

So is it too early to discuss the family's involvement in this game and how crazy big and awesome of a kingdom we could build there? :D

Just to give people a head's up on the timeline, Ryan Dancey, CEO of PFO's developer Goblinworks, said this about the plans on the game's release: "Without the Kickstarter, our plan is to begin Early Enrollment in early 2015, and Release in early 2017. With the Kickstarter at $1 million, we plan to begin Early Enrollment in the summer of 2014, and Release in early 2016."

Its possible they might make goal. I worked with Shadowrun Online to help them meet their Kickstarter goal, they got 60% of their funding in the last couple of days. It sounds like this game might have funding problems, so while interesting, being my skeptical self based on experience, watch with interest, but wait to get full on excited until they enter a Beta phase and indicate they are fully funded to release. I've seen many projects like this not even make Alpha, or fall apart shortly after Beta because of funding problems.

They have a landrush promotion going on right now http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2paon?Poll-Kickstarter-Land-Rush-Leaderboard "This Leaderboard will determine the order that initial Settlements will be created in Pathfinder Online during the Early Enrollment period. After a suitable amount of time has elapsed in Early Enrollment for players to get a sense of the available territory and the relative merits of the initial Hexes available, we will conduct a draft for Territory. The Guild with the highest Membership total will draft first, the second highest Membership will draft second, etc. These Membership totals will be finalized as a part of the post-Kickstarter survey process so final totals will not be available until after that process has completed. This Leaderboard should give Guilds a sense of where they stand in relation to other Guilds during the Kickstarter and it will help them track how effective they've been at recruiting Guild members to join the promotion." Interesting that they are going to do it as a draft for choosing the hexes.

"It sounds like this game might have funding problems, so while interesting, being my skeptical self based on experience, watch with interest, but wait to get full on excited until they enter a Beta phase and indicate they are fully funded to release. I've seen many projects like this not even make Alpha, or fall apart shortly after Beta because of funding problems." - Sekkerhund the Kickstarter program will only be giving it funds to speed up development. If they can't reach the $1 mil mark on Kickstarter, they have other sources and investors. If they don't make their Kickstarter goal it just means the game is more likely to ship in 2016 and not sooner.

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» Edited on: 2013-01-08 10:02:06

I'm glad to see more family interest from Pathfinder online. I've been avidly following it since goblinworks first went online and I've backed both the tech demo and the current project for the MMO. As Sklurb said, the project already has funding to develop and launch, the new kickstarter project is to speed up development by hiring more staff. I'll be in the crowdforger launch and will be providing a detailed post about the game to keep the family informed of the quality and future potential of the game. I'm will still be playing with the family in whatever game we are playing at the time (hopefully GW2) and this will be a side project for myself purely because I love both Pathfinder RPG setting and Sandbox MMO's.

Do you think there will be land to be had after this land rush promotion is over ad these other guilds get their top choice in drafting of the land parcels?

Oh I am sure there will be or you can always try to invade another player city and take it from him. For what I understand the world will be constantly expanding as they invite new players to join. At first there is going to be limited membership. But over time they open the game up to more player and open new area of land to be explored and fought over, A new guild will just have to find a unoccupied hex and claim it for their own.

@Nash The way they are going to launch is limited release like EvE Online did. So with the landrush, the guilds that contributed to kickstarters will get allocated the land for the Crowdforger launch. Then as they let more people in over the successive months, they expand the land of the game as well. Similar to how EvE Space can just go on forever, the River Kingdoms will probably just add more landmass in the Delta.

New from the pathfinder front you do not have to wait years if this goes through you be able to get a peek as it is in progress... Announcing Pathfinder Online: Pit Fight! From the beginning, Goblinworks has been working to get our fans involved in the process of developing Pathfinder Online as early as possible so we can live up to the Pathfinder tradition of player involvement in the development process. In the fall of 2013 we'll be releasing a combat testing tool called Pit Fight! Our players can help us get a much wider range of combat data while getting a preview of combat in Pathfinder Online. Pit Fight will be a stand-alone, single-player experience. Pit Fight will put the player through a number of gladiatorial battles, fought in the newly constructed Bonepit Arena in Thornkeep. Players will be able to get a sneak preview of our combat design and help us shape its development through PvE conflict against various NPC opponents. Initially, players will be using a limited number of prebuilt characters beginning with Fighters but expanding over time to involve other classes, combat styles, etc. Players will be able to try a handful of scenarios we specifically want to test, but over time we’ll add more characters, more customization, and more scenarios. Players will be able to see what aspects of combat they most enjoy and plan their advancement path once Pathfinder Online launches. We plan to release Pit Fight in Fall 2013. We are finalizing the platforms we can support but we anticipate the baseline will be a Unity Web App. wonder what else they have in store for us.

Pathfinder Online Environment Experience Kickstarters, we have a special treat for you today! We have created a UNITY Web App that will let you experience the environment we constructed for the Technology Demo! A few caveats: The web app has not been optimized and we cannot guarantee the frame rate for everyone's browsers. In our tests here at Goblinworks HQ we've seen it perform across a spectrum of speeds depending on video card, CPU and operating system. (Mac users in particular will likely need a recent high-end Mac Pro or MacBook Pro; it won't work very well on Mac Minis, most iMacs, or older machines.) This does not represent the type of game experience you'll have from Pathfinder Online. The Environment Experience does not include characters or goblins. It was built so that you could see a sample of how quickly we have been able to migrate the work we did in the Technology Demo into the UNITY framework and begin creating usable content for internal testing. Plus, we think it's pretty cool! --- Check here for the link to download and see what it is like. There is no combat, etc, just exploring the Keep. I am doing it right now and it isn't bad. It is good to wander around first hand, even if it is empty and part of the tech demo.

This just in from the pathfinder kickstarter: IT IS AWESOME... AWESOME AWESOME KICKSTARTER AWESOME Adventurer and Crowdforger Reward Bonus - Invite A Friend: Shieldmate We want to encourage backers to entice their friends to join the Kickstarter. In the post-Project survey process you'll be able to link to a friend's pledge, and if that friend accepts, you and your friend get a special benefit. Characters on your Kickstarter accounts will bear the Shieldmate Mark. Any time two or more characters with the Shieldmate Mark are in a party, everyone with the Shieldmate Mark will gain a synergy bonus. In addition, your friend will be awarded all the Daily Deals as of the date you first pledged to back the Kickstarter. Each backer will only be able to invite one Friend and accept one invitation, which will be permanent (but you can change your invite if your friend request is denied So who is thinking of pledging and want to be shieldmates: Ps I have a buddy account that means shield mates x2 now x1 I pledge on 12/18 that mean I have all but 2 on the daily deals.

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» Edited on: 2013-01-12 04:00:58

I've been considering making a pledge, and kinda waiting for the right offer to come along (and just kind of hoping they hit the mark without me, lol). What level would I have to pledge to be a Shieldmate? I'm pretty interested!

Well to get any benefit from the Shield Mate you have to be at least 35. level so you get the game. Since shield mate benefit are on in game a bonus whenever you group with another that has the mark and all the daily deal from the date your shield mate has joined. Right now I have 3 possible people who are interested. Two coworker and you. I think this game is going to be worth the 35 dollars.

Oh yeah, I don't have a problem with 35 bucks at all, lol. A thousand bucks is another story entirely ;) I'm totally interested, and will gladly take the spot if your coworkers don't end up pledging. I don't think I've ever grouped with you yet, perhaps we have different schedules, so if you're more likely to group with them, I understand if you choose a coworker : )

That would not really matter here how it works If A and B buddy up and you are C and buddy up with D, so the buddies are A-B and C-D, then if A and C group they will both get the synergy. The Shieldmate Mark is a boolean, all or nothing thing, it's either on or off - you either have the mark or you don't. Who you're buddied with doesn't make a difference, if you group with anyone else with the mark you and that person will get the synergy bonus. Ps: My name in game is not Diella but Ira or Assia.

» Edited on: 2013-01-12 21:13:38

They hit 100% funding today.

This sounds interesting and it is cool they got their kickstart money as of today. I know I am new to Pathfinder, but learning the RPG side fast with the campaigns I got into with Khyote and Nash. =) I need to start keeping and eye on this just to see if it truly something I would want to add to my gaming. Though I am finding I prefer the pen and paper style still, but way happy we can do it via the internet now. ::chuckles:: Way more creativity than running around in a video game.

I think this is going to be a little different then just running around a video game. I am too existed that it got funding going to make the wait seem like forever. I spent most of the day hitting F5 and watching the number climb.

I am so happy that I was wrong about the kickstarter. Just wish I could have been able to donate some money to help them out.

Really glad to hear they hit 100%, although did I miss my shot at the kickstarter thing? I really need to get into the habit of checking these forums on my day off...

It's still going.. Apparently they are stretching for additional funding goals.

And I am going to guess they might have another, to maybe help speed it along as well.

No this is the last kick start they are doing. Although if you watch their web site Ryan Dancy did mention there will be other ways to get in on the ground floor. Not sure if means in funding or joining as a crowdforger. They really seem to want to be open to the community and use their player base as consultant to help them decide how to steer their vision.

Yeah, this looked really interesting in how they are working things and the inklings of how it goes in the future. The cool thing with some of the donations is that at a certain level you get the game free along with some subscription time. Not even sure what the game will actually cost when it comes out or the subscription fee. At least, it is a perk to entice the funds to come in. =) At the moment, I'm trying to decide where to put my funds even as I just got the gas delivery info off the door for today's tank filling. HA!

I like the concept also but the reality is that the whole can be ganked and loose your armor is going to turn off the majority of people who play MMO's. Those worlds only appeal to a select corner of the MMO market and honestly that corner cannot sustain a game for very long without the other people. Its sad but its true. You cannot have a UO type game make it today. Go check out any MMO with similar concepts that already launched in last 3 yrs and will see they didnt fair well. Either they never officially launched, went under, or sold out to someone and were changed drastically to attract the pve crowd. I love the crafting concepts and the PVE concepts in this game and have been a fan of pathfinder. I just think unless they make some form of protection for people who do NOT want to pvp at all unless they so choose this game will not go far. I see no reason to not put in a toggle switch for it that had a long reset timer on it. That way people who do not ever want to pvp are protected and those who do can go hog wild and then also people who abused that switch in other games would not be tempted to do so in the game. I suggested it to them already on there comments. You could have a flag with a 12 to 24 hr timer on it to prevent abuse and also put in a feature if you gank people during that time your flag is extended. This way the bounty system would still apply. Maybe a week for 1 to 5 kills and more for the higher number of people you kill. Other then that I like the game and will keep an eye on it.

» Edited on: 2013-01-16 10:52:20

I typed up a really long reply to the "ganked and lose armor" thing, and decided to delete it. I'm assuming you read the details on that, but you may want to take another look. It's not a situation where you lose everything, you have control over what is lootable and what is not. You also have the chance to loot enemies in return. The protection you're after will be most likely offered by some of the playerbase (Gaiscioch for example, I'm sure if we played this, we would not allow lawlessness within our borders). Something for everyone in Pathfinder, just plan accordingly.

Toros, you can have a game with the looting system that Pathfinder are offering, It's been done, it's called EvE Online. Goblinworks aren't trying to do the common Triple A MMO launch, they don't care about marketing their game to 10 million players like all of the Blizzard competitors are. They are starting with small (Like EvE did) and letting it grow from there. You said that reality is that the whole can be ganked and lose your armor is going to turn off the majority of people who play MMO's. I say the true reality is people are turned off by the majority of MMO's and are looking for something meaningful and challenging to play, why else would they be jumping on every new MMO that releases only to return to their original MMO after a month or two?

Hey folks.  I haven't been active on these boards in a while, but my wife (Terevanya) and I joined up with y'all for the launch of Rift a while back.

Anyway, I'm completely obsessed with Pathfinder Online.  I post on their forums (http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/licensees/pathfinderOnline) as Nihimon and as part of The Seventh Veil, a Casual and RP-Friendly PFO guild.  I'm really curious how much interest there is for PFO among the Gaiscioch family, and whether or not it would make sense to make an alliance of sorts.  It would be really cool to have a really Big & Scary big brother looking out for us :)

I'll try to keep checking here for responses, or you can PM me (Nihimon) on the PFO forums if you're active there.

Nihimon I had no idea you were part of the family! I'm not a regular on the paizo boards lately but I am always lurking and I am one of the goblin squad backers.  At this stage, we are watching Pathfinder online with interest and there may be a Saighdear branch, but it is doubtful Gaiscioch will have a major presence there going by recent information (siege windows).  I wont be leading a Saighdear branch but will be joining you in the Seventh Veil ;)

Elth, I recognized your name from the PFO Forums :)  We'd be honored to have you and any other family members in T7V, if that's what makes sense.

Can you tell me a little about the significance of a "Saighdear" branch?

Also, I'm curious what the objection is to the Siege Windows.  Do the folks objecting to them understand that in order to reach the top, the Siege Window will have to be open 24/7?

Thanks for the reply, and I'll be sure to remain active here - at least in this thread - to answer any questions about PFO.  I'm something of a lay expert on the subject :)

Saighdear is an unofficial recreational division of the Gaiscioch Social Gaming Community run by veteran members to create a fun and enjoyable community in unsupported games. Their goal is to create a playing environment similar to that within the Gaiscioch, in games the Gaiscioch do not officially support.

^ This pretty much sums it up Nihimon.  We've had Saighdear branches in Nevewinter, Defiance, and our official Rift branch retired to Saighdear status not too long ago.  They allow those of us that like to dabble in various titles to stay in touch and play together but without the massive website support.  A Saighdear branch generally doesn't carry the Gaiscioch guild tag, have access to the marketplace or other benefits of an official Gaiscioch chapter like we had with DAOC, Warhammer Online, Rift or Guild Wars 2.

I would love it if you kept us up to date with Pathfinder Online, I know you are a subject matter expert on the game and carry a wealth of knowledge on the game.  I was going to make it my personal project but I am working away from home too much these days to keep up with the goblin worksblogs

I suppose the first thing I ought to do is link to Guild Recruitment & Helpful Links.

I'd also like to address some of the concerns I see above.  Please forgive me if I repeat information that's already been posted by someone else here.

Viktor was concerned about the single-server aspect of it.  I don't think it will be a problem because PFO is deliberately going for a slow-and-steady growth, rather than a spike-and-crash.  They're limiting the number of new players to 4,500 per month for the first 7 months or so, then limiting it to 12,000 per month for another 9 months or so after that.  They will also be expanding the map as new players are coming in so there will always be a frontier.  Finally, since it's not really a Theme Park, there won't be as much incentive for a lot of players to end up in the same zone.

Jayvenpup mentioned the aspect that really got me interested and is still my number one priority - Reputation (and Alignment) consequences for random player-killing.  There will be lots of PvP, but PFO is trying very hard to avoid the mistakes that other Open PvP games have made.  It's very imporant to them (and to me) that the game not be a brutal gankfest for those who aren't really interested in PVP.

Tork Shaw (developer) in Goblinworks Blog: The Man in the Back Said "Everyone Attack!"

We are NOT protecting players from attack or preventing attacks on innocent players. Not at all. But what we are doing is incentivising 'better' kinds of PvP that drive the WHOLE GAME forward, instead of just the maniacal, lonely, sociopathic ambitions of PvP gankers. Those players will exist and can exist, but we dont want another pure Darkfall PvP bloodbath. We want a world that reflects Golarion where combat and magic are the main sources of power but order, rules, loyalties, alliances, conventions, and social codes prevent the descent into total, uninhabitable anarchy.

I apologize if my obsession with PFO becomes annoying here.  I've been following it closely since I first found out about it in January of 2012.  In that time, I've posted on the PFO Forums an *average* of 10 times per day :)

No need to apologize, I'm really glad you stopped by.  The door is always open.

*waves at Diella, doing his best impersonation of someone charming*

The door is always open.

When my wife and I left, Foghlada said "you'll be back".  I realize now that we were just frustrated and bored with Rift, not Gaiscioch.  I guess he has a lot more experience at this kind of thing than I do :)

» Edited on: 2013-10-18 04:43:57

So thanks to Nihimon/Khimber, Decidius and the Seventh Veil, I've had a chance to delve into PFO alpha and while it is very much a work in progress it has me picked like a snotty nose.  The sense of pure overwhelming wonderment I felt after four hours of gameplay makes this game so much more interesting to me in comparison to triple A themeparks.

I start as a nobody, there are no quests to speak of outside the completely optional tutorial, it's just me, my character and his trusty club and peasant clothes waking up at a resurrection shrine.  I talk to trainers, but choose my feats wisely because XP is based on how old my character is, not how much I kill or how many pointless tasks I complete for the local villagers.  Do I take a craft?  Do I head out of town and look for adventure?  the onus is on me to decide and me alone.  There are no rails, no hand holding, it feels very much like SWG did to me all those years ago, but with a medieval touch and without SOE.  Goblins, bandits and wolves roam nearby and are a healthy source of adventuring equipment, but beware, you might bite off more than you can chew and will need to use common sense when approaching groups.

Nearby bandits and other monstrous or humanoid enemies form escalations, and fortify their positions and can take over nearby Hexes if left unchecked.  I am really excited to see this game grow, it is a long way from being a finished product, but with early enrolment starting in a couple of weeks, the community will be thriving by the time it gets some mainstream attention.