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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.
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.
Pathfinder Online hits $600,000 with nine days to go
Pathfinder Online's Kickstarter campaign is entering the home stretch. With a little over a week left for the project to hit full funding, it's currently sitting pretty at just over $600,000 already raised out of its $1,000,000 goal. In honor of the momentum that's building, the team revealed the Bugbear Sniper battle miniature, a howling deathbringer available at "Crowdforger level $700,000." Pathfinder Online is being described by its developers as a grindless, classless system that allows for limitless character progression, large-scale battles, player-built structures, player-driven content, and useful trade and crafting.
An interview with Pathfinder Online's Ryan Scott Dancey
Pathfinder Online is an ambitious new sandbox MMO that is making quite a stir lately. The development team at Goblinworks began its spotlight rampage with an initial Kickstarter project raising money for a tech demo and is currently running a new Kickstarter project to raise enough money to make the game bigger and better with a faster release date. Of course, it helps that the Pathfinder IP has enjoyed wild success through its Pathfinder RPG, but a massively multiplayer online version is an interesting concept. Add to that the fact that Goblinworks is made up of a few industry vets like Ryan Scott Dancey, Mark Kalmes, and Lee Hammock, and you've got yourself a winner. We sat down with Goblinworks CEO Ryan Scott Dancey to discuss the project, the game, the IP, and more. [Update: Clarified that the second Kickstarter project isn't to complete the game. Wowza, people.]
Pathfinder Online blog on designing in the game and on the table
Pathfinder Online's Kickstarter project hits its goal this Friday, and that means the staff has been hard at work designing the game. That design includes both the world for players to explore and the module being released to Kickstarter backers. A new developer blog discusses designing the city of Thornkeep, both in the eponymous book and as a starting point for characters coming into the world of Pathfinder Online. According to writer Rich Baker, the first problem encountered during design was the fact that the book is written with Thornkeep as a somewhat lawless place, while Thornkeep in the MMO will be a starting point for new players. As a result, Thornkeep has a strong central leader with a capricious streak, enough to convey the sense of lawless air while still keeping things sufficiently safe for new entrants. The blog also discusses dungeon design for the book and the tech demo. If either one sounds interesting to you, you've still got a couple of days to jump on the Kickstarter wagon to help fund the development team.
New Pathfinder dev blog talks contract, questing mechanics
The latest Pathfinder Online dev blog is all about contracts. It's also about 20,000 pages long, so reading it starts to feel like reading a real contract after about the 10,000 page mark. OK, it's not all that bad. Heck it's actually pretty interesting stuff, since most MMOs these days go out of their way to segregate players from each other and from decisions that have lasting gameplay implications. Not so in Pathfinder, thanks to its contract mechanics, which Ryan Dancey says are like "a questing system hidden in plain sight." While some of what you'll read in this particular blog is theoretical (and as such, it carries the standard subject-to-change disclaimers), the system as it stands right now is broken down into four in-game tools: escrow, reputation, alignment, and the law. Contracts themselves are sub-divided into assassination, auction, bounty, guard, loan, purchase, sale, and transportation flavors. It sounds somewhat complex, but there's definitely a method to Goblinworks' madness. "Ideally, most of the commercial, diplomatic, and adventuring activities in the game will develop through player-to-player contracting," Dancey writes. "If somebody offers you a reward for bringing them 10 rat tails, it will be because another player needs 10 rat tails for some reason, not just because an NPC has an exclamation point bobbing over his head."
Pathfinder Online kicks off a Kickstarter video series
Pathfinder Online's Kickstarter page got a video update today: the start of a promised "behind the scenes" glimpse of the goings-on at Goblinworks. The video is all about Mark Kalmes, Goblinworks' Chief Technology Officer. Kalmes is introduced as something of an industry veteran, having his hands in the City of Heroes, Champions Online, and World of Darkness pots as he progressed through his career. It was during the WoD years that he met Goblinworks CEO Ryan Dancey, and... well, you can hear the story for yourself in the video. Along with talking a little bit about himself and how he became part of the Pathfinder Online team, Kalmes says a bit about the company's goal (to "go into beta as quickly as possible, start getting a few people in the game, and then start building the game that they enjoy") as well as his hopes for the game and its development. This video is the first in a series of introductions to team members and their roles within Goblinworks. Keep tabs on the project's Kickstarter page (where if you're especially passionate, you can still donate even though the team has reached its goal and then some) for further updates!
Pathfinder Online's technology demo gets soundly kickstarted
Two days ago, we announced that Pathfinder Online was starting a Kickstarter project to fund a technology demo for the game. Yesterday, the project went live. Today, the project has already hit its $50,000 goal and exceeded it, meaning that the game's demo will most definitely be funded when June 8th rolls around. There are still another 29 days left in the project, so if you're interested in the game, there's still more time for you to throw in your support. But maybe you're one of the backers already. If you're still eager for more information on the game, the weekly developer blog has gone live, discussing the rationale behind the Kickstarter project and some of the future steps of the game's production. You can also take a peek at details behind the upcoming tabletop book available for backers, which might help motivate you to donate if you haven't already. [Thanks to Nick for the tip!]
Pathfinder Online puts together a Kickstarter project [Updated]
Kickstarter has been getting a lot of attention from the gaming industry of late after a number of high-profile successes. It's even gained the attention of the team behind Pathfinder Online, the upcoming sandbox MMORPG based on the eponymous tabletop system. So instead of trying to secure venture capitalist funding for the project, the development team is reaching out directly to the fans via a new Kickstarter project to assemble a tech demo for the game. It's important to note that the project is only for funding a demo of the game, enough to show bigger investors that the interest in the game does exist. However, the development team has still assembled a number of bonuses for prospective players, including special forum membership, specialized tabletop game products, and promotional posters. If you're interested in seeing the game continue in development, it's well worth dropping by the Kickstarter page and dropping in some money when it goes live soon. [Update: The Kickstarter page is now live!]
Pathfinder Online goes diving into dungeons
For those of you unfamiliar with the Pathfinder game system, what you need to know is that it's based on the core rules of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. Needless to say, dungeons feature pretty heavily in the tabletop game. So Pathfinder Online has presented itself with a bit of a conundrum: How can it combine the traditionally instanced format of MMO dungeons with the open-world approach of the game? As detailed in the latest development blog, the team is aiming at something between the normal instancing methodology and more sandbox-style open regions. In short, while dungeons themselves won't be instanced, the entrances will be hidden in various locations. When a dungeon is generated, a player who finds the entrance will have that dungeon locked to him or her until the dungeon is cleared, at which point it will despawn and be replaced by another dungeon. It's an interesting idea, and it's well worth reading the full blog for a look at how this system might work in practice.
Pathfinder Online developer blog outlines the path of production
Everything comes from somewhere. That's one of the axioms underpinning Pathfinder Online -- almost every single object that players see will have been produced by a player. In the most recent development blog, the process for gathering and producing items is outlined, and it bears all of the detailed hallmarks of the game's other systems. This isn't a game in which players grab a pickaxe and swing at the nearest rock face for ore; instead, you construct a camp and start up an entire mining operation. The game has a basic three-tiered structure to its non-combat operation, starting with harvesting the resource, moving on to processing and refining the items in question, and finishing with crafting a usable item. And as an outgrowth of the game's open systems, these elements work in multiple directions. Starting a camp to harvest resources, for example, can generate a lot of commotion and attract hostile monsters, necessitating that players deal with the fallout or find someone else willing to do so. No one can accuse the designers of making crafting activities a secondary goal with this degree of detail involved.
Cash rules everything around Pathfinder Online
The latest in the series of Pathfinder Online developer diaries has just recently gone live, and this time it's covering something near and dear to the heart of many gamers: money. Even if you don't play an MMO specifically for the size of your bankroll, everyone likes having cash to spend and money in the bank. The diary explains that the heart of the game's economic system will be a currency known simply as coin, which is meant to be the driving force behind the virtual economy in-place. Beyond the basics of the game's economic theory, however, the entry also reveals something of the game's business model, explaining that players will also be able to spend real money to purchase Skymetal Bits. These Bits work as microtransaction currency, running the gamut of the usual microtransaction services (skill training, cosmetic items, special content, and so forth). If you've been following the game along thus far, you'll probably want to see what information the latest entry is providing.
Pathfinder Online goes time-traveling in latest dev blog
According to the venerable Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, time is an illusion, and lunchtime doubly so. MMO time is perhaps even more illusory, and that's the exact topic of today's Pathfinder Online dev diary. It's always tricky deciding on the ratio of real-world to in-game time. On the one hand, if time moves too quickly, it can be immersion-breaking; on the other hand, if time moves too slowly, it can lend a sense of stagnance, especially if other gameplay mechanics rely on the day/night cycle (such as mobs that only come out at night). In light of this, Goblinworks has decided on a 4:1 game-to-earth-time ratio. This means that four in-game minutes will pass in the span of one real-world minute, one in-game day will pass in the span of six real-world hours, and so forth. This will also influence the rate of travel within the game. The team is operating under the assumption that the average human moves at three miles per hour. In-game hexes are about three-quarters of a mile from edge-to-edge, which means that it would take a real person about 15 minutes to traverse one hex. When you take into account the game's chronological dilation, though, the same journey will take an in-game character less than four minutes (assuming he can travel in a straight line), which the team says passes a basic "sanity test when considering the travel times required to cross the zones in other MMOs." The full dev blog is chock-full of even more information than we can cram into this article, including details on how different variables (such as mounts, magic, and difficult terrain) will affect travel time and the perceived scale of the world, so if you're in the mood to have your brain addled by MMO chronomancy, head on over and give it a read.
Goblinworks announces Pathfinder Online
For pen-and-paper RPG players, Pathfinder remains a perennial favorite game setting. Those players may find themselves excited to know, then, that Goblinworks has announced Pathfinder Online. This MMORPG adaptation of the extremely popular system will be a "hybrid sandbox/theme park-style MMO roleplaying game." The title will feature a "robust trading system [that] puts players in control of the world's economy," which should be wonderful for players who like to work the market. Characters can also establish settlements and expand them into full kingdoms while raising an army to help defend their turf. The announcement boasts randomly generated events, as well, stating that "as settlements develop, the surrounding wilderness develops more complex and challenging features." The goal appears to be not just to create a game, but in fact to bring to life a real, evolving world. Pathfinder fans should keep their eyes on Goblinworks' official site, where further development updates will be posted.
Exploring Eberron: Our interview with DDO community members
In this week's Exploring Eberron, we resume our player interviews at the other end of the vet scale: those newer players. I had the pleasure of talking to a few people who joined up when they heard about the Dungeons and Dragons Online free-to-play switch and loved it enough to jump in with both feet. This is another long read, and these three have some great tales and thoughts, so without further ado, let me introduce our community members! Dulcimerist is a 36-year-old musician who plays an electric mountain dulcimer and who is a three-time cancer survivor. Bryanmeerkat is a new player since October 2010 and a self-proclaimed "occasional troll," often spotted "pretending I know what I am talking about on the forums." Cam Neely lives in the greater Boston area and works at one of the colleges in Boston. Cam is an officer in the Forgotten League on Orien with two main characters: a TRing Barb and a capped Bard Warchanter. Cam is a casual but committed player, typically playing a few hours in the evening when there's time. Follow along after the break to see what they had to say!
