ArchAnjel's page

For anyone going through the same situation, I found the best solution was to use a combination of the two above. The maps from https://foundryvtt.com/packages/kobold-king-maps-remade-by-taurah are beautifully done but lack any actors or journal entries. Deidril's PDF Importer added all the actors and journal entries but the maps are just the default ones from the PDF which are... not great. Especially given that secret doors are visible and patently apparent.

So I deleted most of the scenes from Deidril's PDF Importer and replaced them with scenes made with maps from kobold-king-maps-remade-by-taurah. Turned out pretty nice that way.

Sagian wrote:

Calcryx666 wrote:

H2Osw wrote:

Friday is a big day!

That trailer is awesome, I can't wait to get my copy!

There will be so so many refreshes and checking everywhere for this Player's Guide tomorrow, can't wait

Refreshes…refreshes again…and again…Calcryx666 is a prophet…refreshes again…

Let’s go: https://downloads.paizo.com/SevenDoomsforSandpoint_PlayersGuide.pdf

Player's Guide downloaded. Woo hoo!

Not to mention that one’s skill at every form of Crafting is based on INT. So Wizards make the best blacksmiths because we all know how blacksmiths are famed for their intensely bookish nature...

And I personally dislike how long it takes to craft things with this system. At 3rd level, a character can start making Expert level equipment for his party. If I want to upgrade my standard 10 sp longsword to Expert (350 sp value), it’s gonna take me a month and a half (350-10=340; half up front means 170 sp remains to be crafted after the initial 4 days time; at 4 sp value per day, that’s 42.5 days (170/4=42.5); tack that onto those original 4 days and you’re looking at 46.5 days for one longsword). If I want to help out each member of my four-PC group with a weapon or suit of armor (light or medium), then we need to take a six-month hiatus from adventuring because we hit 3rd level.

Of course, I’ve heard all the rationales about how adventurers aren’t supposed to be crafters, the crafting rules aren’t made to benefit adventurers, etc. but I would argue that some players, myself and several members of my gaming group included, happen to enjoy playing crafting-type characters so why NOT make crafting rules that DO support that play style as valid and fun?

EDIT: And yes, I understand the difference in time can be made up for by paying the difference in cash. It’s an interesting mechanic but if the group is cash-poor (as our group historically is) and crafting their own goods because it’s the only way they can afford decent gear, it leaves one in a bit of a pickle.

The MMO Dark Age of Camelot dealt with the issue of color by supplementing colors with “+” and “-“ symbols. For example, if something was one level above you, it’s name would be in orange but would also have a “+” next to it. Two levels above you was red with a “++” and three or more was purple “+++”. Similarly, creatures lower level than you progressed from blue “-“ to green “- -“ and finally to grey “- - -“.

Using a symbol of your choice that can be interpreted by text parsers and easily recognized by the color blind seems the best choice.

In case anyone finds it interesting, I thought I would share the background I wrote up for my human ranger. I tried to include some potential story hooks that my GM can use or not as he sees fit. The background creation section in Ultimate Campaign served to provide inspiration for the conflict described in the latter portion. It's quite lengthy so I won't feel bad if you choose to skip past it but for those who enjoy this sort of thing, I just thought I'd share so others might use it as a springboard for their own backgrounds if they like.

The youngest child of Halgra of the Blackened Blades, Ghurok was just an infant when his mother returned to Trunau to raise her children. Though his mother has never discussed the exact circumstances of his birth, Ghurok has managed to piece a few things together from stories told to him by his siblings.  He knows that his father was a half-orc and that he was conceived while in the northern reaches of the Hold of Belkzen in a town called Wyvernsting.  He has been told that Wyvernsting is ruled by a half-orc chieftain named Hundux Half-man of the Murdered Child orc clan and believes that Hundux might be his father but has no way to prove it.  He hopes to some day find out the truth of who his father is.

As a child, it was clear that Ghurok had inherited some features from his half-orc father.  His dusky-hued skin and oversized jaw marked him as having the blood of an orc in his veins.  Though Trunau society is generally accepting of such traits, children can be cruel and Ghurok was often teased and bullied for being different.  Though large for his age, he still had the maturity of a younger child and cried and ran away when teased, earning him more taunts and jeers, the children calling him a "big baby."  When the teasing got to be too much for him, he frequently ran to the house of his one good friend, Lyrien, a human girl his age.  She was always kind to him and the two of them often spent hours playing together, pretending to be great warriors, husband and wife, or famous explorers.

As the years went by and Ghurok and Lyrien developed into adolescents, their friendship grew into a deeper fondness for one another and eventually love.  By this time, Ghurok had grown into a broad-shouldered and enormously tall young man with a jutting jawline and short but distinct tusks.  He no longer needed to run to Lyrien for protection, yet still they spent much of their free time together.  They became sweethearts and at the age of 16 declared that they were betrothed, vowing to marry in the coming summer.

As a child of Trunau, Ghurok has lived through several assaults on the town from nearby orc raiders and their allies.  Just a few months before his impending wedding, he was nearly killed in such a raid by a boulder thrown by a hill giant ally of the attacking orcs.  Fighting beside Lyrien on the palisade walls firing arrow after arrow down into the attacking orcs, Ghurok was smashed to the ground and knocked unconscious by a glancing blow from the massive rock and many were shocked when he later awoke from what most believed to be a fatal injury.  One of his tusks had been snapped off near the jawline but it was clear that he would otherwise mend.  However, he was driven nearly mad with grief when he discovered that his beloved Lyrien, standing beside him on the palisade wall, had taken the full force of the boulder and been crushed beyond recognition in an instant.  Years later, Ghurok learned that the foe who threw that fated stone was actually a hill giant chieftain named Grenseldek and Ghurok swore to someday find the giant and avenge his betrothed.

Knowing that fulfilling his vow would take a level of martial expertise far in excess of what he currently possessed, Ghurok sought out Patrol Leader Jagrin Grath for training.  After a year of training, Ghurok had achieved some measure of respect from the Patrol Leader and was made responsible for leading a small squad on patrol missions.  He was not comfortable with the prospect of leading others and told Jagrin bluntly that he didn't want the job, preferring to work alone or with others under loose guidelines.  The Patrol Leader informed Ghurok in no uncertain terms that every man who lives in Trunau is responsible for providing service to the town in whatever capacity they can.  Jagrin had determined that Ghurok was capable of leading so it became his responsibility to fulfill that role to the best of his ability.  Ghurok grudgingly accepted the new role but resentment began to fester.

One day while leading his squad out to begin exercises alongside the Patrol Leader's squad, Ghurok noticed the longing fondness with which Lessie Crumkin watched Jagrin Grath depart.  Seeing her barely concealed emotion brought to the surface feelings of loss, anger, and jealousy that Ghurok thought he had suppressed.  He decided that day to hurt and humiliate Jagrin for foisting a leadership position on him; he wasn't sure exactly how yet but knew that it would involve Lessie Crumkin.

Over the course of the next several weeks, Ghurok began a campaign designed to lead Lessie into believing that Jagrin was trying to arrange a secret tryst with her.  Through love letters slipped to her in secret, the plan was laid out for her to meet with Jagrin in a private room in the Ramblehouse under cover of darkness.  Ghurok enlisted the aid of several less-than-reputable residents of Trunau to assist in the subterfuge.

Finally, the stage was set.  Ghurok went to Jagrin and informed him that an amazing spectacle was soon to begin in one of the rooms at the inn.  He led the unknowing Jagrin into a private room where Jagrin saw a bed completely enshrouded in heavy curtains and surrounded by an array of seedy-looking characters doing their best to stand silently in anticipation with leering grins on their unwashed faces.  With everyone in attendance, Ghurok stepped forward and with a single sweep of his hand drew back the curtains to reveal Lessie Crumkin arrayed on the bed in her finest boudoir attire.  The smoky look of anticipation in Lessie's eyes turned to abject horror as she realized that she was not alone in the room with Jagrin.  The crowd begain hooting and hollering for a show as Jagrin Grath stood dumbly and uncomprehending.  Finally, Lessie clutched the bedsheets around herself and Jagrin leapt into action to remove her from the scene of raucous and cruel laughter.  Ghurok knew that he had humiliated Jagrin badly by making him an unwitting accomplice in the farce but he revelled in the pleasure of striking out at someone who had, in his mind, confounded him.

Of course, Ghurok was removed from his position as leader of the patrol squad.  He was also removed from serving in patrols at all and told further training could be had on his own.  At first, Ghurok tried to act as if that was his plan all along but in the months that followed, he came to regret what he had done.  He had used Lessie as nothing more than a tool, a weapon with which to strike out at something that hurt him.  The pain of his loss had made him blind to the harm he caused her.  In time, Ghurok even saw that Jagrin Grath, by forcing responsibility upon him, was trying to help him become a better man, a more capable leader.

At present, Ghurok spends his days on his own, delving the hills and gullies surrounding Trunau, trying to keep his skills and his blade from dulling.  He tries to not drink too much at the Killin' Ground in the evenings and keeps his distance from Jagrin Grath.  He has contemplated public apology and acknowledgement of his wrongdoing but has not yet reached that point. For now, he keeps his thoughts, actions, and companionship to himself, hoping for something interesting to happen in his life to distract him from his brooding thoughts.

And I'm re-reading GDQ (Queen of the Spiders) and Scourge of the Slavelords for kicks, too.

I just finished digging out and re-reading The Crystal Shard for all its giant-slaying scenes. And it's actually decently written for a first novel unlike that gods-awful novelization of Against the Giants.

Since Giantslayer evokes for me memories of GDQ, I'm going old school with this one and playing just a straight up human ranger. I'll probably use a heavy warhorse as my animal companion to get 50 feet of movement every round while full attacking from range, switching to a bardiche or greatsword when melee is necessary.

I'm hoping that this AP will afford opportunities to gather intelligence through scouting, capturing and interrogating enemies, and other such things at which rangers excel.

"Touching base" posts like this are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Eventually, I would like to see the tool integrated into the game client so everyone has access to it. You might even make a dollar or two from selling it to Goblinworks.

I think anyone who is not an employee of Goblinworks should not be telling others where they should or should not post their feedback. The lack of an NDA is a conscious decision by Goblinworks meant to encourage people to spread the word about PFO through whatever channels they like.

This entire thread is yet another of Andius' attempts to speak ill of TEO at every chance he can fabricate. That guy mainlines drama like a degenerate junkie. I guess this thread is his next fix.

PFO has been very open with info from the game, unlike most developers. So yes, data that would in others game be concealed from players or covered under an NDA is in PFO openly shared with the players and there is no NDA.

On the forum, the devs (Tork or ???) have stated that charge is not yet implemented.

Charge is most certainly implemented. I was toying around with it last night. Upon activation, you rush forward 20 meters toward your target unless you get stuck on intervening obstacles such as furniture, stumps, tents, etc.

And to those saying that it's too early to call for tweaks, I ask "Are you not aware that we're in Alpha to provide feedback about the game?" This is our opportunity to do exactly that, provide as much feedback as possible about what we like, what we don't like, what works, what doesn't work, what feels too hot, too cold, or just right.

If your intention is to sit quietly and provide no feedback until you are told to do so, well I think you're just missing out on a fantastic opportunity. To quote from the Kickstarter Alpha pledge, "You will be welcomed as part of a very small group of alpha playtesters in a closed Alpha of Pathfinder Online. This will be a great chance for you to give us direct input on how Pathfinder Online ends up looking and playing in its final incarnation." You can choose to take a "don't ask for tweaks," "don't ask for crowdsource," and "do not design" approach if you like, but I paid my money to have a voice and by God I'm going to use it whether that gets your panties in a twist or not.

In no particular order, the following is a list of observations and impressions from day one:

• The tethering mechanism is easily exploitable to solo entire camps of creatures by engaging from max range and then just taking a few steps backwards when you want to disengaged. The mobs reach their tether distance and run back to camp.
  
• Iron ore (and possibly other base crafting materials) are not dropping from nodes so crafting is impossible.
  
• Not having any indicator of the source of incoming damage makes it really easy to gank other players before they realize what's going on.
  
• Character wipe upon logout combined with repeated power outages in my neighborhood (five so far tonight) makes for a frustrating combination.
  
• Several times early in the evening, my character model simply vanished and movement keys stopped working. The UI was still responsive but I no longer had a character to move.
  
• At one point, I had somehow been removed from all chat channels. Hard to ask for help on that one. Couldn't even whisper anyone.
  
• Twice the client thought it was still connected to the server but clearly was not; there were no NPC guards in town, no trainers, no other players, etc.
  
• Having some devs in game to answer questions that the UI could not yet answer was really helpful (like, "What do I need to do to reach level 2?")

Goblinworks,

You guys need to get your story straight before you post, please. You're sending out mixed signals.

Companies will probably be able to control multiple towers.

A settlement with 6 towers MUST HAVE 6 ALLIED COMPANIES.

Therefore a settlement will have SIX COMPANIES to defend those SIX towers.

These two statements stand opposed. Either a settlement needs six companies to control six towers OR a company can control multiple towers. Which is it, please?

Settlements will basically get a "Score" based on their progress and will get an adjusted starting position based on their average tower holdings over the course of the War of Towers and will get starting buildings in their settlement based on this.

This is significant and acts as a strong incentive for warmongering. My previous statements about settlements only needing to hold enough towers to maintain adequate training no longer hold true. With this new information, it becomes clear that settlements will want to grab and hold as many towers as possible from the very first day of EE to maximize their Score, thus granting them a more fully fleshed out settlement when implemented.

Related to my post above, I hope everyone bears in mind that the incentive to capture towers is limited to ensuring adequate training for your settlement. In other words, if I only need to hold two towers in order to provide my settlement with the training it needs, then I don't have any incentive to take your towers away from you. I can just hold a couple local towers and I'm good. Grabbing more towers than I need at a given amount of time from launch gets me nothing except enemies.

As more time passes, I will eventually need to hold a third nearby tower, and then a fourth, and so on, but that leaves possibly weeks if not months before I have any reason to start looking beyond my nearby six towers.

@Archanjel, have you looked into Dwarf Fortress? It's a game that takes intense patience and has a very steep learning curve, but it can be quite a rewarding experience.

Yeah Shane, I've played it but just found the interface to be a huge barrier to fun. There was clearly fun to be had but there was so much work to be done before the fun could be found, I ended up dropping it. Several times. That's another one of those games that I've gone back to more than a few times hoping for a better experience.

Wurm Online was like that for me, too. Man did they hide the fun in that game behind about four hundred thousand grindy mouse clicks. There was fun there; I could see that there was fun there. I just couldn't reach it.

Maccabee wrote:

You totally threw me off because you're saying 'GW' and my brain is translating that into Guildwars. Damn ARENA.NET messing with my Patfhinder.

As a player of Warhammer since their statlines had letters in them*, I have to keep remembering that GW doesn't stand for Games Workshop...

*(1st Edition, with Harry the Hammer on the box, atomising a skeleton.)

I'm with you here. Every time I see "GW", I also think "Games Workshop". That's not because I've played Warhammer or 40k, but because I've been a gamer long enough to know that that's what it has always stood for.

Kids today with their "Guild Wars" and their "Goblin Whatsits"! Shouldn't you be in school? Get off my lawn!

Kitsune, I recommend inducing premature labor and then propping the baby up next to you so he or she can watch you game. That's some bonding time right there!

;o)

A strategy I have adopted when posting:

1) I do not try to convince others of either their wrongness or my rightness.
2) I share whatever I have to share and then STFU about it. Once my point has been made, which might take a couple, three posts if I fail I initially to express my thoughts clearly, I don't belabor the matter any further.
3) I respect that other people have opinions different from mine and that they have every right to express them.
4) I don't give a... care... whether others agree or disagree, even violently, with my opinions. I simply express them and move on.
5) I remind myself to listen to and consider the thoughts and opinions of others; I try to listen more than I talk.

Guys, we're getting distracted again and starting the same old discussions. Please do not let yourself get side-tracked with issues of what Golgotha did or why they did it. That way lies madness.

The question before us is NOT, "Do you think Golgotha should get a settlement?" I urge you all to please not try to answer that question.

Ryan has narrowed the focus of the issue to one defining question. If you have not yet answered that question in this thread, I encourage you to please do so. The question, within the parameters of Pathfinder Online, is, "Do you perceive Pax to be one guild or several guilds?"

Some have claimed that this matter is already resolved, suggesting there is no reason for anyone else to come forward to share their thoughts. As Ryan's most recent post indicates, the matter is clearly not yet resolved and may still end up being addressed by direct Goblinworks intervention regardless of what previous stance they may have taken.

My point in clarifying this is to encourage those who have stayed away from this post up to this point. The matter is not yet resolved and everyone's opinon really does still matter

If you have not already done so, please share your thoughts on the question that Ryan has defined, "Is Pax one guild or several?"

Dear Goblinworks,

In order to facillitate settlement management, please consider implementing a tool settlement leaders can use to view the contributions of its members, an influence leaderboard if you will. I envision such a tool as a chart containing a list of every company currently sponsored by the settlement along with a score. That score would be an abstraction of factors including, but not limited to, the following examples:

- Influence currently allocated to settlement resources
- Number of PoI currently held
- Number of outposts currently held
- Lifetime influence earned while sponsored by settlement
- Lifetime days spent holding settlement PoI
- Lifetime days spent holding settlement outposts
- Other factors reflecting a company's contributions to a settlement

In a perfect world, the interface for this leaderboard would have a tab where each factor calculated into the score would be listed along with a weighting value. I imagine it defaulting to all factors being equal with a value of 100. Each weighting value could then be manipulated to alter the relative weight of each factor into the overall score.

The goal is to create a tool for settlement managers to identify which companies are now contributing or have in the past contributed to the success of their settlement. Such a tool would be tremendously valuable and I sincerely hope you consider this suggestion.

Or is your problem that 'Pax' is getting two settlements?

My objection is that the Pax gaming community, the meta-guild, is directing the votes of their members, assuring them of getting the highest ranking so they have first pick of all the settlement locations.

Since the analogy to real-world politics has already been made, let me put it another way. Smith and Jones are two democratic candidates vying, along with a myriad of other candidates, for a seat in a prestigious subcommittee. Smith is already guaranteed a seat but Jones has to struggle along with the other candidates to explain his position, share his values, and generally sway the voters to his cause. But here's the problem; the democratic party has two candidates where the other parties each represented themselves individually. Smith is already assured a seat but votes are still coming in for Smith since he's on the ticket. That splits the vote, weakening Jones' position and reducing the chance that Jones will get the coveted spot. So to solve this problem, the democratic party starts taking votes that were due to be cast for Smith and stuffing them into the Jones box. There! Now Jones doesn't have to worry about competing anymore.

That is illegal because it is not fair. It is not fair to the others competing for that spot on their own merits. They don't have anyone stuffing the ballot box in their favor.

A situation exists where the Pax vote is split. While other guilds have to struggle and form alliances where disparate guilds start working together for their mutual benefit, Pax just diverts more Aeternum votes into Golgatha to ensure they stay on top. That is what I see as unfair and that's what I have a problem with.

Disclaimer: The thoughts expressed in this post are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of TEO management.

For the record, this is what I told you:

...
snip
...

That's really enlightening. In the end, Pax chose to do what was in Pax's best interest. Maybe they thought Ryan was wrong, that no one would see the problem with this situation. Maybe they themselves didn't see it as a problem.

Personally, yeah I see it as a problem. Two separate guilds decided to form an alliance; no problem. They created a structure that highlighted the separation of the two guilds; great. But then their leadership started "tampering with the vote" by specifically funneling members of Aeturnum into votes for Golgatha to ensure that Golgatha would be artificially high on the leaderboard to guarantee its success. In my mind, that's a problem.

Clearly, there are those who think it's not an issue. Some have stated that it's an issue for GW to handle; I can't disagree with that. A great deal of trust was placed in the Pax community by Ryan and this is what was done with that trust. I am interested to see how Goblinworks handles this situation and at the same time I feel sad that they have been put into the position of having to do so.

I can see the merit in those PMs that Ryan was getting: "If Pax is going to get away with this then we feel not only permitted, but obligated to do the same thing, because the downstream benefits are so incredibly immense."

CLICK HERE to see an amazing Kickstarter project about the history of the empires of EVE Online.

This is EXACTLY the sort of project that I would love to see for Pathfinder Online as well. And to think... we all get to be in on this from the ground floor. How exciting is that?

I think this will become a non-issue when the token overlay is put in place. The three existing settlements will be the only three hexes on the map with a token but no letter. In my mind that makes clear two facts:

1) There will be a settlement in this hex.
2) Ownership of that settlement is not up for grabs.

If I were a newbie looking at the map for the first time, that would tell me everything I needed to know.

1.) Find bad guys KILL!! KILL!! KILL!!

2.) Find noobs point right direction.

Don't forget:

3.) Invite good guys TRAIN!! TRAIN!! TRAIN!!

=o)

Maybe you can come join us here after TSV falls

Xeen, this is what people are responding to. As long as his temper tantrum continues and and he spouts off stuff like this in YOUR recruitment thread, expect resprisals.

If you don't want your thread to get derailed, tell your newest member to stop crying, "Boo hoo! Boo hoo! Those big meanie-pants hurt my feelings!"

But I'll be honest with you, man. I believe you may have bit off more than you can chew by admitting him. At the very least, UNC leadership needs accept that this is the kind of behavior you can expect from your new member and it comes with ramifications.

If you want him, you've gotta be willing to take all that comes with him.

Ryan, you mentioned that the team is working on completing all the tasks for the current milestone. I wonder if you can elaborate on that somewhat.

What tasks make up the current milestone?

Additionally, what impact, if any, does the land rush have on the start of Alpha? If something hangs up the start of the land rush, will that also delay the start of Alpha?

I'm with a group grinding away at some camp of mobs, waiting for the respawn. One of the group members is running around in circles, constantly hopping up and down, up and down, up and down, and was just generally acting like a kid.

I whisper to one of my groupmates, "I'd be willing to bet that guy is, like, 12." The next thing I know, she says into group, "So, how old is everyone?"

This guy stops his jumping as he replies, "I'm 12. How old are you?"

She responds, "I'm 27."

The next words out of this poor kid's mouth, I s**t you not, were, "Wow! You're old! My mom is 27!"

...

... <I took a moment to do the math> ...

...

"Ummm... hey... just so you know... you probably should NOT tell people that. Just take my word for it - it does not reflect well upon your mom."

I have to admit something here that I feel somewhat ashamed of. I have posted on this thread several times, even unjustly attacking Bluddwolf for which I hereby publicly apologize, without having taken time to read the entire thread, cover-to-cover, as it were.

Having now done so, I have a different understanding of the situation. I think what we've done here to Bluddwolf, The Goodfellow, and the UNC is terribly unfair and mean-spirited. Bluddwolf came to this discussion with an open and honest declaration of his commitment and instead of being thanked for it and welcomed, he was asked to do exactly what Roseblood's leadership has expressly stated they refuse to do - define "positive gameplay." And this despite the fact that he was the ONLY prospective signatory to have already defined specific behaviors to which he was willing to commit.

Not only that, but he was addressed with such emotionally charged language as to immediately be put on the defensive:

1. Is it "positive gameplay" to prey on the weak and inexperienced?

2. Would players seeking a "positive gameplay experience" feel fulfilled if they were robbed by bandits who had promised to provide that "positive gameplay experience"?
3. Would robbing members of their valuables or raiding members' Outposts contribute to "our mutual success"?
4. Is Banditry compatible with Milani's stance against oppression?

When I read that again and look at the way those questions were worded, it becomes clear to me that this was an unprovoked attack. These questions were not put forth in the spirit of open and honest discussion of viewpoints; rather, the author already had the answers in mind before ever asking the questions. Who is preying upon whom, here?

And how can any of us, in good conscience, demand that he define what exactly falls within the bounds of "positive gameplay" and "mutual success" when the Roseblood leadership has expressly refused to do exactly that? Does that not strike you as the very height of hypocrisy? And then, when he did his best to answer our questions, even his answers were attacked as being no better than abiding by the terms of service. I say, call it what you will, his commitments are a far sight better than the nonexistant commitments offered up so far by anyone else.

It has been stated in this thread numerous times by numerous people that the good guys NEED the bad guys. The UNC has committed to being the bad guys in the most honorable way they can. Having gone back and re-read the entire thread, it is clear to me that Bluddwolf and The Goodfellow, while sometimes provoked to anger and frustration, were doing the very best they could to try and define their parameters for "positive gameplay" and explain how they fit into the overall picture of fun and challenging gameplay for everyone. It is equally clear that their efforts were doomed to fail; people just had it in their heads that their definition wasn't going to be good enough but no one would offer anything better.

I think we need to consider the true role of the Roseblood Accord. Is it a mutual protection pact? Is it a clubhouse where only the cool kids get to play? Or is it an agreement to behave with honor?

If the latter, I believe we will not find more honorable players willing to take up the role of bad guy than Bluddwolf and The Goodfellow.

DAoC used a model that allowed for increased range based on your elevation relative to your target. You would commonly see archers on the battlements or positioned up on a hillside raining arrows down onto the field of battle. Would be great to see that here too.

It seems to me that the Roseblood Accord is basically just an agreement among like-minded individuals to be the "good guys" in the game. I mean, that's what all this "positive gameplay" posturing is all about, right? It's just a buzzword approach to saying, "Hey, let's not be the people who go around robbing and killing people just because they have something we want. Let's instead be the good guys!"

The UNC has made it clear that they intend to be the "bad guys." They intend to rob and kill, extort, assassinate, and anything else they can get paid for. Additionally, they don't seem to have any particular desire to be a member of the Accord, taking a stance along the lines of, "if you want to add us to your Accord, go ahead." They have shown no interest in changing their behavior to be more like the "good guys."

So I don't see the problem here. We don't add them to the Accord, they get to play the bad guys, we get to play the good guys, everyone gets what they want. We can't be good without having their badness as a counterpoint and vice versa so we're each providing a service to the other. All this semantics about defining "positive gameplay" is just silly.

In preparation for the highly anticipated opening of Alpha access, I decided to go back and read some of the blog posts I haven't read in a while. I wasn't concerned with posts about the art assets, Kickstarter rewards, or how the money is being spent; rather, I was trying to focus on brushing up on the mechanics of the various systems.

I discovered that it is virtually impossible to review the posts in any fashion other than starting with post number one and advancing through every single post in turn. The reasons for this are two-fold.

1) Entitling the posts with song lyrics that are only tenuously related to the topic of the post and even then only if you already know what the post is about makes it impossible to see at a glance what the actual topics are by scanning the titles. Clever, yes; useful, not so much.

2) In the entirety of the blog, there are only two posts that have been given a category, they both have the same category, and that category is the least descriptive word I can think of, short of perhaps "Stuff."

Give this job to an intern if necessary but please, someone, take a few minutes to go through and slap some categories onto the blog poets.

Some recommended categories include: Geography, Settlements, Combat, PvE, PvP, Character Development, Factions, Reputation, Alignment, and Companies.

If the software you're using for your blog supports the use of user-generated tags (which it should, given that the game is ALL ABOUT user-generated content), please consider enabling that feature so we can do the work for you.

Regardless of the actual mechanics involved, each of us understands that there is a reasonable expectation of what the risk versus reward ratio is in any game. If you find a way to imbalance that ratio such that you are gaining far more reward than is warranted from the degree of risk to which you are subjected, then you're exploiting.

Its really not much more complicated than that.

I'll share a story from the early days of Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC).

Some Hibernian friends and I had decided to visit the frontier to do a little grinding not far from the entrance. While we were out there, I started to see a name I had seen many times before, "PersonX was killed by Plip," "PersonY was killed by Plip," "PersonZ was killed by Plip."

Plip was a kobold and a Hunter from the frozen lands of Midgard. Hunters have the ability to use stealth to become invisible and they attack from range with their bows to deadly effect. But I too had these skills; Aine McLish, lurikeen Ranger. I knew that I was in an excellent position to end Plip's vile predation upon the good and noble people of Hibernia.

I sent a "tell" to PersonZ asking where he had been killed. "The bug log" was my answer. The bug log was an old fallen tree which housed a rapidly spawning hive of giant ants, a spot famous for lowbie solo grinding. Cloaking myself in shadows, off to the bug log I sped.

Upon arrival, I saw one lone lowbie Druid pulling ant after ant. I assumed Plip would attack from behind his victim so I moved into good position to launch a counterattack where I suspected Plip would likely appear. And then I waited.

After several minutes of scanning the low grass for any sign of my quarry, to my frustration the druid packed up and started heading for home! Grimacing in chagrin from the audacity of what I was about to do, I sent the poor young Druid a "tell", asking, "hey, would you mind doing a few more pulls please?" He stopped and I could almost see the confusion on his face. He didn't question the request, however, and went back to the bug log for one more pull. That was all it took.

Plip must have sensed his opportunity slipping away because as soon as that Druid engaged the next giant ant, Plip struck! I saw the Druid's health drop precipitously, announcing Plip's attack. Immediately scanning my surroundings, I saw the dark little kobold readying a second shot. Quickly targetting him in my crosshairs, I drew back my own bowstring and let fly an arrow that struck true.

I saw Plip's health plummet like a stone but, whether from ignorance of his situation or steely resolve I cannot say, he did not move as he continued to send arrow after arrow into the poor Druid until his target fell lifeless to the grass. His objective met, Plip took quick stock of the situation and made the wise choice; he summoned his pet wolf to attack me and fled as fast as his tiny legs could carry him.

I saw the wolf approach with remarkable swiftness but knew I had time to loose one last arrow before Plip was out of my range. I let fly and watched as the arrow arced beautifully across the meadow. As Plip's wolf reached me and lunged for my throat, my arrow found its home in Plip's back. The summoned wolf vanished as Plip's corpse slid to a stop at the end of a bloody trail in the grass.

That wasn't the last time I ever saw Plip... but it was the last time I ever saw him hunting lowbies at the bug log.

One thing to keep in mind regarding "respecs" is that Ryan has said from day one that character development over time will be about breadth of experience, not necessarily depth.

In the example of a sorcerer who needs to start out as a wizard and bemoaning the fact that he'll be weaker than the wizard once the sorcerer is introduced, consider how much more powerful that character will be compared to any other Level 1 sorcerer. You'll already have X levels in another class and have chosen to expand the character's abilities by developing as a sorcerer. Levels don't exist per se but you get the point.

As another example, take the monk. Instead of not playing your twin until the monk comes out, consider how much more powerful he could be if he starts his monk career with "10 levels" of fighter under his belt?

I think in general it will be more beneficial to think of your character as a person first, rather than a class. That person is going to go through life picking up all sorts of skills in his career as an adventurer, or leader, or merchant lord, or robber baron. This game differs from the tabletop in that it's not about being a "pure" whatever, it's about accumulating a diverse array of skills over time.

That's going to be the life of an early adopter.

I'm really looking forward to Pathfinder Online for a numer of reasons but high on the list is the wealth of dynamically generated content in the game, much of which is generated by the actions of the playerbase. Some of the quests in the game clearly will be generated by the players in the form of bounties, contracts, etc. I would like to suggest a possibility for dynamic generation of non-player-created content.

Way back in the day, Sid Meier created a spy game called Covert Action. The game had its share of flaws but one thing it did which I think has tremendous potential was the way it generated "missions". The game contained ten mastermind villains; in Pathfinder Online those might be evil demigods, demon lords, mighty necromancers, or crafty dragons. Each of those mastermind villains had a specific objective, something far-reaching requiring the achievement of numerous smaller objectives; think along the lines of development, production, and distribution of a magical disease or the subjugation of an entire region by turning everyone into undead.

To acheive that larger goal, several intermediate goals would need to be achieved, perhaps an ancient formula retrieved from the depths of some ruined wizard's tower or the destruction of a village for the rapid generation of corpses for reanimation. Some of these intermediate goals might be broken down into even smaller goals such as researching the location of a wizard's lost tower or blackmailing a guard captain to turn against his village.

The accomplishment of these goals can be approached from two angles. Through successive layers of obfuscating underlings, the mastermind villain needs to hire someone to accomplish these goals. But as word gets out that someone is being or has been hired, opposing forces may choose to take action to prevent the accomplishment of these goals. So for each goal, content is generated for two types of players.

Now, from the mastermind's perspective, the goal NEEDS to be achieved. If one group fails, another group must be hired to achieve that same goal. Perhaps she hires from a different region and that same quest spawns elsewhere in the game. Once that goal is achieved, the next step in her nefarious plan gets generated as a quest. At some point along the quest chain, perhaps there is a point of no return where failure of the quest results in a complete collapse of the quest chain. And that quest chain might appear later in the game having been generated by a different mastermind.

So from a list of masterminds and a list of plots, a series of goals can be generated as quests. Each quest results in content for two types of players, the "for" and the "against." Some of those plots may share similar goals to reduce development resources and to obfuscate the true nature of the plot.

I believe this could be a great way of encouraging player interaction in an ongoing storyline without that storyline being static content that is consumed once and then ignored.

I was going over the map of the Wormwood last night and something occurred to me... how the hell do the ship's non-officer crew get back and forth between the main and middle decks?

There are only two sets of stairs that lead from the main to the middle deck - one in the Officer's Quarters and one in the Captain's Quarters. Both are kept locked and trapped with the Officer's Quarters having Owlbear chained to the bottom of it expressly to prevent anyone from coming up the stairs into the Officer's Quarters.

Do they get hauled up and down through the cargo hatches? That seems a bit unusual.

Am I missing something obvious? Should this be hand-waved? Do the captain and/or officers let the entire crew come traipsing through their quarters every time a crew member needs to relieve themselves?

Add my kudos to the list. Great stuff that I'm looking forward to incorporating into my game.

The Overlords Guide to Kingdom Building (Google Docs optimization guide) has now been stable for a month, so it is probably in a reasonable state.

Wow, that's a heck of a document! Some really great stuff in there. I wonder if the author will consider including as optional, the material in Book of the River Nations: Complete Player's Reference for Kingdom Building. There's some great new material in there that can enhance farms, add more building options, etc.

No apology necessary. Loved it!

Please pass along my kudos to player of the cleric for a fantastic job at thinking on his/her feet with the ghost impression. That was truly inspiring.

Shannon

Wow... just... wow...

I had no idea a simple "FYI" post would spawn such heated discussion.

I'm glad Wes took it in the spirit in which it was intended - a simple "just so you know" that had no malice or "grammar police" intent behind it. Since he is an editor, I figured he would enjoy learning something about the etymology of the phrase and having a better understanding of its usage and origins. That's all.

And to those who thought the message would have been better suited to a PM, I agree wholeheartedly. As mentioned in my original post, I could find no better place to put the message since these boards do not seem to allow Private Messages. There does not appear to even be a PM functionality here. I did mention the post to Mike McArtor with whom I game every couple weeks and he has since informed me that the Contact Us page has the email address of every Paizo employee. So now I know how to contact people directly should I ever want to pass along some information that would be better suited to a private conversation rather than public.

Anyway, I'm glad the general tenor of this thread has become somewhat more congenial and I hope this message finds everyone healthy and happy - especially Koldoon and his radioactive goop. =o)

Shannon