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Pathfinder Online never closes a door without opening a PvP window
Having a settlement you worked hard to build be under constant attack just isn't fun. Pathfinder Online realizes this, which is why settlements are normally defended by large numbers of respawning NPC guards. Not too many to prevent players from scouting a town or stealing a few things, but enough to make a frontal assault fruitless unless you want your corpses to litter the outskirts of town. If that were always the case, though, attacking a settlement would be pointless. So during a brief window every day, the guard respawn rate decreases, numbers thin, and suddenly the town looks much more vulnerable to attack. A well-developed settlement will still have guards, but a coordinated force will be able to eliminate them... unless players step in to defend the settlement. This also solves the problem of having massive attacks come when no one is awake to know what's happening. Read the full details in the latest development blog on the official site.
Pathfinder Online dev blog talks dynamic PvE, escalation
Pathfinder Online's website has updated with a two-pronged dev blog attack. The first salvo concerns Kickstarter updates and more importantly, when backers will start receiving some of their rewards. The game's pledge management system is coming next week, so be sure you have a Paizo.com account set up and ready to receive rewards like the PDF superpack. The second portion of the update concerns escalation cycles and escalation mechanics which tie into Pathfinder's version of PvE content. "An escalation is a dynamic story event such as a Bonedancer goblin invasion, an outbreak of widespread banditry from the League of the Wood, or a raid of dark elf slavers," the blog explains. Goblinworks says that its escalation mechanics are such that players will encounter a wide variety of content and story scenarios. "The combination of different types of strength-based advances, expansion preference, stage advances, and quests associated with stages provides us with a wide variety of tools for creating very different experiences from escalation to escalation," the company says. "Some escalations like the barbarian raid will effectively march across the map; some will reach a defensible limit and fort up; some will keep trying to expand indefinitely and attempt to overrun the entire map." [Thanks to all who sent this one in!]
Pathfinder producer talks player-generated content, archetypes, and more
Goblinworks' CEO Ryan Dancy recently guested on the DM Fiat podcast. The Pathfinder Online producer had plenty to say about the tabletop RPG that's invading the MMO space, including nuggets about Pathfinder's extensive guild/settlement system, the River Kingdoms and expanding beyond them, and player-generated content. Dancey says that Goblinworks would like for players to create their own PvE content modules and sell them to others, likely via some sort of app store format. He also mentions Pathfinder's archetype system and its numerous advantages over traditional class mechanics. Head to DM Fiat to listen to the podcast. [Thanks Mark!]
xScope, Fantastical, more available for just $10 in new MacHeist bundle
The latest bundle from MacHeist has just gone live, and it's a good one. There are six apps in the bundle, and they're a steal at a price of just US$9.99: You'll get the great xScope measuring tools for designers, Fantastical's excellent calendar app, Boinx's stupendous iStopMotion, tutorial-maker Clarify, invoice-creator Totals and CleanMyMac 2, which will help clean all sorts of old cache files and cruft out of your system. In addition to those (any one of which is worth the price as-is), the excellent indie game Little Inferno is set to be added to the bundle at 10K sales, and PathFinder should also be added in at some point. Plus, there are two more spaces on the site for more apps, and 10 percent of your purchase will go to charity, so there's quite a few reasons to just go grab it now and treat yourself to some excellent Mac software. And if that's not enough, there's also a Name Your Own Price Mac bundle sale going on over on Stack Social, where you can get 10 more great Mac apps (including CrossOver 12, DiskTools Pro and Paperless) all for a price you name yourself. If you beat the average (currently $7.77), you get all 10 apps, so if you combine this with the MacHeist deal, you could pick up 18 of the best apps on the Mac for under $20. It's a great day to be a Mac owner for sure.
Pathfinder Online discusses the creed of assassination
Not everything in Pathfinder Online is meant to be sweetness and light. Your player-run settlement might have all of the people it needs to be built into a great city, but all it takes is an assassin accosting one of those people and suddenly everything can fall apart. And that's not just conjecture -- the latest development blog shows how the assassination system is meant to facilitate precisely that sort of outcome under the right circumstances. Assassination is a system allowing players to put out contracts on other players, whether for long-term gain or just spite. Successful assassins will slowly become better and better at stealth and can prevent targets from resurrecting nearby. They also get access to Disguises, special outfits that change your display name and hide your actual abilities from other players. If you're looking to be the blade in the night that puts down your target, take a look at the official blog for all the details.
Goblinworks illuminates Pathfinder's spellcasting system
Thinking about becoming a Wizard or Sorcerer in Pathfinder Online? It's not going to be like rolling a mage in another MMO, where you'll instantly have access to infinite firebolt and ice shard spells that are conveniently located on your hotbar. No, it's going to be complex and deep because this is Pathfinder and that is what Pathfinder does. In a new dev blog, Designer Stephen Cheney spells out (har) the approach the team is currently taking with arcane casters (i.e., Wizards and Sorcerers). While these classes will get a huge reservoir of basic cantrips to fling out during normal combat, their actual spells will be difficult to acquire, powerful to perform, and limited in number of uses. Cheney talks about how wizards will put together spellbooks, why it's important to have a pouch full of spell components, and what keywords you're going to want to collect in order to build the type of caster you envision. It's a lengthy read, but as a wizard apprentice, you're already used to that, aren't you? [Thanks to Matixzun for the tip!]
Pathfinder Online dev blog explains territory and the hex map
You wouldn't normally think that something like hex size would be such a big deal in a video game, but Pathfinder Online's Lee Hammock explains in today's most recent blog post that it can make a huge difference. First off, the type of hex matters. Whether it's a settlement hex, a wilderness hex, a monster hex, or an NPC hex, each version determines control capabilities, building laws, resources, and so on. This basically means that no two settlements will be alike. If you'd like to read up on how much territory and the hex map actually matters in Pathfinder Online, head on over to the dev blog to read more. [Thanks matixzun for the tip!]
Pathfinder dev blog details the building of Fort Inevitable
If you're looking for a little insight into the creative process behind Goblinworks' crowdfunded Pathfinder MMO, look no further than the latest dev blog by designer Rich Baker. After a brief intro by producer Ryan Dancey, Baker delves into the nuts and bolts of building Fort Inevitable, which will likely be "one of the major NPC towns and a potential starting area for new characters in the Pathfinder Online game." The blog post is pretty long, so bring your own caffeinated beverage. It's an interesting peek behind the development curtain, though, and you can find it at the Goblinworks website. [Thanks Matixzun!]
Visualized: First photo using ISS-mounted ISERV Pathfinder zooms in on Panama
It's been a while since we last heard of the ISERV Pathfinder, an imaging instrument that consists of a camera, telescope and pointing system that was sent up to the International Space Station last July. Now it appears it's safely installed inside the Destiny module on the ISS and has captured its first ever image, seen above, a few weeks ago on February 16th. The high-resolution picture is of the Rio San Pablo, an ecological transition zone that's marked as a protected area by the National Environment Authority of Panama. Captured at three to seven frames per second with about 100 images per pass, photos like these are designed to transmit details of natural disasters and environmental mishaps to developing nations. Even though NASA Marshall in Huntsville, Alabama is at the helm, it's in cahoots with researchers in Central America, East Africa and the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region to carry out its goal. Of course, they're still in the starting stages at the moment -- a few outstanding issues include the amount of sunlight needed and if the geometry of the ISS window affects the image -- but NASA hopes to open up the ISERV to other scientists in a few months once it has all its kinks worked out. To check out the stunning "first light" picture above in its full resolution, head on over to the source below.
Pathfinder Online shows off early development art
You might have been looking forward to Pathfinder Online for a while, but it's been hard to really look at the game. That's starting to change with the latest blog entry on the official site in which art director Mike Hines discusses the process of making art for Pathfinder Online and shows off some early renders that should demonstrate what the game will look like once players finally get to enjoy it. Hines discusses the fact that the game has the advantage of drawing upon a great deal of established artwork for the Pathfinder tabletop game, but it also has the challenge of adapting those visuals to the online space. He also shows off several early concept renders and sketches, stressing with each that these are still works in progress that might change before the final release. If you're anxious to look at the game instead of just forward to it, look through the full blog entry on the official site. [Thanks to matixuzn for the tip!]
Some Assembly Required: Bringing the 'craft' back to crafting
A recent comment made in regard to crafting in an upcoming game gave me pause. It went something like this: If the gameplay fails, the crafting system won't matter. My first thought was that this person must have accidentally tripped over his tongue and mistakenly substituted words, meaning to insert pwnzer PvP or some such instead of gameplay. Why? Because we all understand that as a part of playing the game, crafting is inherently gameplay. But then another explanation for this wildly inaccurate statement came to me; perhaps the speaker had actually never seen -- let alone experienced -- real, meaningful crafting in a game! After all, there has been a serious dearth of deep, involved crafting systems where skill and dedication are valued for quite some time in MMOs. Crafting, if it exists at all, is often relegated to some mechanic that can be slept through that results in uniform, standardized products. It's no wonder that some folks might not realize that crafting is gameplay. But change is a-comin'! Some upcoming games are returning to the idea that robust crafting systems are a deep and engaging part of games. Heck, the whole premise behind one is crafting! Two titles, The Repopulation and Pathfinder Online, seem to have really hit the nail on the head when it comes to developing sophisticated crafting systems that have purpose and meaning. Today in Some Assembly Required, we'll take a closer look at how both are putting the "craft" back into crafting.
Murder by numbers: A closer look at Pathfinder Online's combat mathematics
If you like granular detail on still-in-progress systems for a game that hasn't been released yet, boy are you in luck! A new dev post from the Goblinworks team turns a microscope on the hows and whys of combat in Pathfinder Online. This is obviously an important thing, as Pathfinder itself has a well-established combat system that's awesome for pen-and-paper gameplay but probably significantly less awesome for online combat. The system is being modified so that there will be fewer chances for epic failures and so that epic successes won't completely imbalance the game. Combat is being built to make even small numerical differences important (it'll be way cooler to have +10 against Immobilize than nothing), to emphasize the importance of different weapon types, and to keep luck from being a more important factor than player skill. Read the whole blog post for the nitty-gritties of how the numbers work out.
Pathfinder dev blog rolls up its sleeves and digs into crafting
If you've been looking forward to an involved crafting system, Pathfinder Online is happy to oblige. In the most recent dev blog, the game's proposed system is laid out in great detail, from gathering the resources to the final product. In a nutshell, gear (the majority of which will be player-crafted) will be the final result of many steps involving different skill sets, with the creator's skill rating at each step contributing to the final quality rating. Each step -- harvesting or salvaging, refining, crafting, and enchanting -- can only achieve a quality rating equal to the level of either the starting materials or the creator's skill, whichever is lower. The blog also gives players an update on how Kickstarter rewards will be disseminated. For full details on both this and the entire crafting process, check out the the full blog.
Pathfinder's Hammock talks PvP behavioral incentives
Curious about how PvP is going to work in Pathfinder Online? You're not alone, as it's something of a hot topic in the game's community according to the latest Goblinworks blog post. Lead designer Lee Hammock walks us through the team's current thought process which includes player identification through alignment, nods to the Pathfinder pen-and-paper roleplaying game, and behavioral incentives. It's this last bit that's most informative in terms of sussing out what sort of game Pathfinder Online wants to be. Hammock lists large PvP wars, attacker flags, and discouraging mechanics like bounties, death curses, and reputation loss as desirable behaviors.
Some Assembly Required: Kick(start)ing the sandbox genre
Sandbox aficionados are known to reminisce about the "good old days." You know, that time long lost in the past when the greats of open-world play like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies (pre-NGE of course) enjoyed their heyday. Many a lamentation has also been heard about how things have never been the same, or how nothing has filled that void. Of course, the sandbox never died. In 2012 we started the year off with a guide to games sporting sandbox features to scratch a variety of virtual world itches and we ended with a look at some promising upcoming titles for 2013. With plenty of choices abounding, why are sandbox fans still decrying the lack of a home? It could be because they want one home for everyone to settle in together, basically one game to rule them all. But how realistic is that? Even with the plethora of offerings now, many folks want to play their ideal sandbox, and everyone has their own idea of what the perfect one would be (and conversely, what would kill it). Perhaps the answer, then, is to forget about a single universal home that accommodates the masses and actually create a number of niche games where people find exactly what they are looking for. Wait, that's already happening? Enter Kickstarter.
Goblinworks answers post-Kickstarter questions in latest Pathfinder livestream
So yesterday was a big day in the life of Pathfinder Online, what with the project meeting its Kickstarter goals and all. To celebrate, a gaggle of Goblinworks devs sat down for an impromptu livestream last night that gave fans and backers the opportunity to put some faces with forum names and ask a few questions of the newly funded project. The livestream is now archived on YouTube, and you can watch the entire 47 minutes after the cut. The team answered several community generated questions during the vidcast, among them a confirmed list of beginning playable races (elves, dwarves, humans, and gnomes), clarification on the game's "pet" system, and more. [Thanks to Don for the tip!]
Pathfinder Online Kickstarter now successfully funded [Updated]
Pathfinder Online's Kickstarter campaign is coming right down to the wire, and it's anyone's guess whether the game will achieve its funding goal of a million bucks before the campaign ends in six hours. As this is being written, the campaign has amassed $972,177, meaning that the campaign needs to pick up an additional 30 grand or so within the next six hours. So far, the campaign has been raking in a steady flow of contributions, and $30,000 in six hours isn't a terribly farfetched goal. Unless there's a sudden drought of pledges, it looks like Pathfinder Online is going to achieve its goal with (admittedly very little) time to spare. If you're trying to decide whether or not to pledge and would like to know more about the game, Goblinworks CEO Ryan Dancey has started an impromptu ask-me-anything thread on Reddit, so feel free to pop by and ask some questions. [Update: The Kickstarter just passed $1,000,000. Pathfinder Online incoming!]
Pathfinder Online unveils 'Environment Experience'
Pathfinder Online's Kickstarter campaign continues ever onward, but it will soon be drawing to a close. The Goblinworks title has received pledges totaling $671,765 of its whopping $1,000,000 goal. If you're on the fence trying to decide whether or not to pledge to the campaign, Goblinworks' latest treat might be enough to knock you off of it (one way or another). Fans can now access a nifty tool that will allow them to traipse about the environment from the game's tech demo. It runs right in your browser courtesy of Unity, so it's definitely worth at least a quick look. There is, as you may have guessed, no actual gameplay in this little demo-land; it's just you, the movement keys, and a small chunk of the Pathfinder Online world. If you wanna poke around for yourself, you can find the demo at the source link below.
2012: The year of the MMO Kickstarter
Kickstarter is perhaps the biggest story in the world of gaming since the birth of the home video console or the integration of online components into consumer entertainment. No new product, innovation, or invention has carried with it such immense potential for shifting the way the industry plans, builds, and delivers its products. And with projects covering everything from hardware to companion apps, it's almost impossible now to imagine a gaming world without Kickstarter, even though it was our reality just a few short months ago. The legacy of Kickstarter is one that we're witnessing in real-time. Most of the major successful projects are slated for late 2013/early 2014 releases, giving us plenty of time to speculate on what may or may not go wrong with the crowd-funding model and the products it bears. Over the next year, games will either make it to market or they won't. Developers will squander their budgets or release on time. It's all up in the air. With that in mind, we thought now would be a good time to look back on some of the biggest MMO Kickstarter projects of 2012. The fate of some of these titles is inexorably tied to the fate of Kickstarter as a viable game-creating platform -- and maybe even crowd-sourcing as a whole.
Pathfinder Online will be released for Windows and Mac
Goblinworks, the development team behind the upcoming Pathfinder Online MMO, has just announced that Pathfinder will be available for both Windows and Mac users. Because the team has decided to work in UNITY, there will be a minimal amount of platform-specific development. Think this is a wonderful/horrible idea that will be industry-changing/a sure sign of failure and that more people need to embrace it/scorn the very notion of it? The team is inviting feedback and questions on the Paizo forums. This announcement is timely, as the game has almost $400,000 left to raise in the final week of its Kickstarter campaign. Perhaps a flood support from all eight Mac-only gamers will clinch the deal.
