Last Call for Feedback!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Today is the last day of the Occult Adventures Playtest. If you have already contributed to the playtest, thank you so much. These classes will benefit from your care, comments, and dedication.

If you have been sitting on some feedback on these classes, psychic magic, or the spells released with the playtest document, get on the messageboards and let us have it. The survey and messageboards will be closing at 2:00 PM Pacific time today. There won't be a second playtest round this time, so stay tuned to this blog for updates about Occult Adventures until its release next summer.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Designer

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Tags: Pathfinder Roleplaying Game

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No second playtest makes me a sad panda:(

Scarab Sages

I'd rather not have the second playtest and let that time go to more thorough editing.


Testing period was way too short. I didnt have a single opportunity to play a new class.

Paizo Employee Lead Designer

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Hey there folks,

We understand that some folks would like to see a second round or an extended time to play test, but our schedule requires us to march foreword on this book. Playtests are a very time consuming process for us, and if we are going to give this book the time it needs to go through development and editing, we have to wind this process down.

That said, we do want to offer our thanks for those of you who have taken the time to play test and contribute to tis process. You have given us valuable insight into these classes and we feel confident that you will see that work bear fruit in the final versions.

Thanks again

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer


Is there still a way to find/access the threads...so that we can catch up on what was going on in all of the discussions ?

Silver Crusade

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Here You Go

All the threads are locked but still visible.


Many thanks DM ;)


Well, since the threads are locked I guess I'll post here, just an idea for the 'Implements you want to see'. I also suppose it's a bit late to add, but may work for an archetype somewhere down the line.

Transmutation Implements: Belt, Cloak, Mask
Allows the wearer to use a continuous Alter Self or Beast Shape spell, upgrading with more Focus, but without the attribute bonuses. Maybe Alter Self would allow the bonus, at the same point that Beast Shape II would be available in the alternate?


If playtesting is time consuming then why wait until the last minute to release a playtest? Would it not have made more sense for you guys to have released the playtest several months ago instead?

Now I fear the classes for this book are going to be sloppy because of lack of real playtest time. You guys are not giving us much to go on to keep up any faith that this will turn out good.

Liberty's Edge

Bear in mind that there is a difference between "playtest" and "public playtest". I have no doubt that they will continue to "playtest" these classes. There will simply not be any more "public playtest" for them.


Also, it's not like the playtesting is the absolute last thing they need to do on the book. They need to make sure the text is finalized, do layout, plug in art, and so forth. Changing the text after doing layout could require changing a number of other aspects of the book (each of which can unintentionally change any number of other aspects of the book), so it's not like they can keep editing the text up until the moment they send the files to the printer.

Designer

To give a bit of transparency as to why the timings are what they are, here are some of the steps in the Occult process and how they work out together, removing the step about the playtest ending so we can decide where we would want it to go:

1) Stop/parallelize working on Unchained, even though it is the sooner book, and spend serious effort on concepting Occult classes and making 4+ internal versions of each one. Send out orders to freelancers.
2) Back to Unchained while other teams make the playtest document beautiful. Freelancers are thinking about their sections.
3) Work on Unchained, but also spend a good deal of time reading and responding to playtest. Freelancers are writing their sections. At this point, freelancers would be better served the less we changed and the earlier the playtest ends.
4) Freelancers have submitted their turnovers, and we're completely through with Unchained. More or less the first thing for Occult Adventures needs to be the new classes, as others have dependencies on them, with small pieces that could be picked off. At this point, every day of the playtest is delaying the design team's pass, which delay's the editing team's pass, and so on.

So in these 4 steps, the question is where to end the playtest. It's probably not a good idea to wait until after 4 to end it, as it leads to the delays mentioned in 4's description. If we end it right after 2, that means the freelancers all get to write archetypes, feats, and so on with the final versions of the classes, but that makes the playtest super short. It seems to me that right after 3 is a pretty good place to end it, and that's pretty much where we ended it this time.


As long as Burn doesn't end up being a "kill yourself" option and Kinitecists get utility and iterative Attacks, I think I'm okay with one one round of playtesting.

Designer

Some of those may happen, others may not (since there's subjectivity involved, it's hard to say), but the one thing I can assure you is that given the data gathered from the playtest, an additional round of public playtesting would not have affected the answer to those questions (because on those, we already had plenty of feedback).


That's interesting, and makes me eager to get the book. Will some/any changes be revealed?


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Barachiel Shina wrote:

If playtesting is time consuming then why wait until the last minute to release a playtest? Would it not have made more sense for you guys to have released the playtest several months ago instead?

Now I fear the classes for this book are going to be sloppy because of lack of real playtest time. You guys are not giving us much to go on to keep up any faith that this will turn out good.

Think about it a second :) There is a finite amount of time. Whenever they release the playtest, that time is used up. So, releasing it "several months ago" would not have create "more" time. Other products/deadlines/etc, etc.

I have faith that no one could do these books better than the professionals working on this book. Keep your chin up my friend!


It appears that the playtest forums are indeed still unlocked in some capacity; don't know if it's still looked-at at this point, but I went ahead and put up another playtest anyway.

Fingers crossed regarding the Spiritualist's future! And another hopeful request for updates/changes to be revealed.

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