Paul Ryan's page

If there's a conspiracy, NZ is also a victim... :-( No shipping for me, no PDFs yet either.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has remembered the International Date Line when planning the shipping. If my order ships tomorrow and if it takes the minimum estimated shipping time to arrive, it'll be here on the 14th my time, but the 13th in the US, more or less.

Out of interest, where in NZ do you guys live? I'm in Auckland and all of my shipments have actually arrived with me earlier than the estimated times. Maybe I've just been getting lucky. :)

I'm in Auckland too. I'm too cheap to spring for the more expensive shipping, so I normally get 11-40 days shipping. Most of the time it's closer to the short end of that range, but once in a while I get two months subscription arriving about the same time. I haven't had a later one beat an earlier one yet though.

On the odd occasion I've had an order shipped at higher rates due to weight, it tends to be about a week, at the low end of the 6-10 days estimated transit.

Bugga! So my weird order including a whole pile of older books (If I am paying 45 bucks for postage due to the weight, I am going to make it WEIGHTY!) will be a late sender even if it is going all the way to NZ. The problem for those like me is that the estimates given by UPS and USPS to NZ are 'to NZ' not to my door, by the time they get through customs it will be weeks late :(

I'm in the same boat, more or less, though it's only one odd item for me. Still, judging by my last shipment, assuming that everything goes right, if it ships today we may get it on the 13th here in NZ. OTOH if it follows the average time... it'll be a week or more extra, assuming shipment today. :-(

I believe the system is set up to assume one of the preordered copies is the subscription copy. So if you preorder two, then subscribe, it takes one of them out of your preorder to be the subscription.

Most of the Foxit problems have been resolved as of the lastest version (especially the weird graphic not being behind the text issue as well as the upside-down text magnified issue).

Cool news thanks. I haven't checked the updates for a bit.

After reading those blogs, I checked out "Foxit", and while it has some of the same exploitable issues as Adobe Reader, it is SOOOOOOOOO much faster at opening and displaying PDFs...

The only problem with Foxit is that it, WinXP, and the Paizo PDFs don't seem to play nice together. There are graphical display issues which mess up the formatting and make it harder to read. Oddly it works just fine in Vista, so that's where I read the Pathfinder stuff. The difference in how fast Foxit runs and handles files makes it worth the hassle.

It also doesn't let you extract the graphics the way Adobe Reader does, but that's not an issue for me since I don't have the time to do it anyway.

You didn't give issue numbers, but if it's an issue for which there is no PDF for some reason (like the last ones when the license was revoked or the pre-Paizo editions if available), the item page doesn't specify that the item in question is a physical copy.

If there is a PDF option, then it states it clearly in my experience so there isn't any confusion.

It's working now.

I look forward to learning more about their plan. The most obvious issue I see is that many game stores don't have computers with internet connections—I've heard perhaps as few as 10% do—so this would only help a subset of retailers.

I don't know what prices are like in the US, but in New Zealand you basically have a choice between unlimited data with a sloooow dialup connection, or a faster and more expensive connection with a small data cap after which you get charged through the nose per meg of data.

I doubt people wanting to purchase PDFs through a store via a web connection would want to wait for an hour (or more) to download their purchase, and if the stores here use any sort of faster connection, there goes their profit on the sale in paying for either an expensive connection plan with a large download limit or in excess fees per meg downloaded once they hit their monthly cap.

You just bet so used to your glasses, sometimes it is hard to remember you're even wearing them... That's the line I'm sticking with anyway.

The converse of that is when you forget to put your glasses on, then have a horrible few moments wondering why everything is blurry before you remember them.

Doh! It was right there in what I quoted, and I still totally missed it. Thanks for the replies, and for not rubbing in the salt.

Twin Dragons wrote:

Well its one day after Free RPG day,so where's the free pdf already?

Many times the sages have said "At least noon PST on Monday". Trust the sages, they do not steer wrong.

In which timezone? (Serious question from someone who's nowhere near the US)

[rant]It's 3:59 pm here, so it should have been up 4 hours ago.[/humorous rant]

Many thanks! I've been waiting for the subscription instead of preordering to save going through checkout too often. :-)

Masika wrote:

Just wondering about this.

I missed the Charcter Pathfinder Chronicles title. :)

Currently, only the Pathfinder AP sub has charter subscribers. These subscriber tags are long enough as they are!

It'll be interesting to see what happens to title lengths with the Pathfinder RPG subscriptions. You might need something like a 'Paizo Omniscriber' just to keep the lengths down. Mine's half way across a 1900x1200 resolution screen already.

Erik Mona wrote:

Please help us confirm that feeling. :)

Bring out your subscription and you will see Eric. I believe lots of folks are waiting for that over preordering.

Me for one. If I preorder then subscribe I have to go through checkout twice. I'm too lazy to do that if I don't have to. ;-)

I'm missing a lot of Avatar images too. All I see is a link giving the file name of the missing Avatar image. I'm using Firefox 3.0.10 in XP.

What's interesting is that when I use that link to try to view the missing images, I get a 403 Forbidden error from the Paizo server. I don't have a similar problem when I do the same with the visible avatars. They display fine. It looks to me like the problem is at the server end.

The same is true for missing images in the store - I get a 403 when I try to view them separately from the page.

I suppose next everyone's going to ask what the title be for someone who subscribes to the upcoming RPG line while already a superscriber.

Hmm mine has superscriber instead of charter even though i have all 4 subscriptions as well. Which I thought was what it was with all 4. Not that it matters.

IIRC the 'Charter' part is for someone who subscribed to the adventure paths from the very start. I carried my subscriptions over from Dungeon and Dragon, so I qualify on that count.

Is there any chance that Paizo will ever be able to release the collected "Demonomicon of Iggwilv" articles in a style similar to the "Dragon Compendium," or at least in a PDF? I loved those articles, but due to lack of finances I missed out on the last year and a half of Dragon's publication, and therefore missed several installments.

It's unlikely that they can, due to their licensing agreement with WotC. Once the contract to publish Dragon and Dungeon magazines ended, they lost the right to do anything more than sell the backstock of physical copies and the PDFs they had already produced. I've seen posts from people with Paizo saying that they'd love to be able to release the final issues in PDF but can't because their agreements with WotC won't allow it. Something like the compilation you want would be similarly blocked.

Unfortunately, unless Paizo can get permission from WotC to do something like that, you're stuck for buying back issues.

They do have both the basic book and the Shadow Knight expansion for sale as PDFs on OneBookShelf for US$12 apiece.

That's my understanding. The Bonus Bestiary PDF will be free, but the physical copy will be for sale in limited numbers after the Free RPG Day.

If an item you've preordered becomes part of a subscription you sign up for, the first preorder will go towards the subscription, and you will not get 2 of the item.

Thanks for the info. I think it'll be easier for me to wait until the subscriptions are announced for this - then I only need to go through the checkout process once to set it up.

Just a quick question:

Why isn't the Pathfinder Advantage applied to the Paper Minis products? Is this a glitch in the system or are the minis considered non-Paizo pdfs?

The Pathfinder Minis are made by a third party with Paizo's permission.

I think the ability to include the new hardcover in a subscription shipment may be affecting the pre-orders. I know I haven't stuck an order in yet because I'm waiting on the subscription announcement in the hopes that I can combine the shipping with the rest of my monthly stack and save some pennies that way.

I think you'll find that if the threadcrapping stops, the self-policing will no longer be necessary.

I'll just say this on the subject and leave it at that: Your 'self-policing' IS thread-crapping in the eyes of many of the people trying to carry on or simply read an interesting discussion.

Just to confirm now that the races and dwarf preview have downloaded, on XP with Foxit 3.0 build 1506, I get both the races and the dwarf pictures covered by the brown box that should be behind them.
On Vista with the same Foxit build, the pages display properly.

GentleGiant wrote:

It IS indeed the reader, it must parse the information differently. I just opened it in Adobe Reader too and it's as it should be (with the dwarf on the top layer).

Recently, I've also begun to experience problems with viewing Paizo's PDFs with Foxit Reader. Those same PDFs show fine in Acrobat.

I wonder if Paizo changed something... I much prefer Foxit to Acrobat. :-(

I've noticed the same thing. What's really peculiar though is that the problems I've had seem to be OS specific. They display oddly in WinXP but not in Vista on my laptop, though it's the same version of Foxit, both installed from the same download.

That doesn't change the fact that we all refer to them as "day-mons" regardless. It's our word now, and that's the way we're rolling.

Can I make a prior art claim on that? ;-) I've been using that pronunciation to distinguish them since 1st Ed was new.

About 8.5 hours to go, so if you haven't yet got your stuff - get downloading! :-)

I had backups, but I've still downloaded some stuff again. Some of the initial releases were incredibly bloated, and subsequently seem to have been recompiled and reuploaded. When the original was 267 meg and the final about 50 (that was Dragon Magic if anyone's curious), it makes a notable difference to how well an older computer handles it.

Even if people are backed up, it might pay to check on the larger files just in case there's a smaller version now. The only one bigger than about 100 meg I had which hadn't been reduced was the 3rd ed Draconomicon. I didn't bother to check stuff smaller than that.

I got some Greyhawk box sets shortly after the PDFs became available from a place called SV Games, I think. It's long defunct, at any rate (afaik). Other than here and that other big download store, I'm not aware of any.

SV Games stopped selling PDFs of the old TSR products some years ago. They also stopped hosting the files for previous customers to redownload, though they did give plenty of warning via email. They were the place I bought my first TSR PDFs from. I'm not sure if they still are in business though at the time they did also ship physical products. I got the Dragon CD compilation from them too.

Since they stopped supporting the downloads I've considered the 'contracted' ability to download files later to be worth precisely as much as the paper it's written on and made sure I had backups just in case. Even with the best intentions of the vendor, things out of their control can happen, as WotC has just demonstrated to Paizo and OneBookShelf.

As I've pointed out elsewhere, the number of people who bought the books and don't play is probably dwarfed by the number of people who didn't by the books but who play anyway - whether by using communally available books (the DM's, their friend's, a library's) or by using illegal digital copies of the books.

I won't argue with that - it seems a reasonable assumption to me. On the other hand, how many of those people who are playing without their own legal copies of the core books or at least Player's Handbook are going to rush out and buy the next one that comes out? For purposes of revenue, they don't have much if any immediate effect on WotC's profit. They may buy their own if they come into the money for it eventually, but if they can't do that, they're not buying the later books either.

Could be less than 250k. I picked up the core rules so I could see what they were like, and I've kept up with the others in PDF format (legal downloads only), but I don't actually play. People like me who bought the core and for whatever reason didn't play would skew the real player estimates even more.

For that matter I don't play Pathfinder either, though I enjoy the books for reading. Lack of time and a group unfortunately.

I just picked up the Scenarios. I already had the other PDFs through my subscriptions. I admit it's something I would have done eventually, but I spent my budget for this months WotC 4th Edition PDFs, so you got the money a lot sooner instead of WotC getting it, because you made such a great PR move in response to their self-inflicted disaster.

Scott Betts wrote:

It might be time to find another way to get your fix.

Given that the only ways to "get your fix" are now illegal or prohibitively expensive...

And that the whole point of taking them down is supposed to be to discourage the illegal alternative... Gotta wonder about the reasoning behind the decision.

While it's science fiction, not fantasy, you might want to check out Eric Flint's book '1632' and the various sequels. The premise is a smallish American town transported back in time to Germany in 1632, and what they do about the situation. While the plot's not what you're looking for, it does cover some of the issues of supplies, rebuilding, resources and so on.

Is there anything stopping me from, say, buying one month and downloading all the content during that month? I really am only interested in subscribing if the tools are up to par, and currently they are not. I can't see a compelling reason to pay $59.40 for a year's worth of access when I could, for example, pay $16 and download six months worth of content twice per year.

They say that you only get access to the contents of Dungeon and Dragon for the months during which you're subscribed. But supposedly you'll be able to buy the back issues from non-subscribed periods separately.

I'm beginning to think this order is cursed or something. After taking a month for most of it to ship (and I'm still waiting on one item), the parcel arrived today. Missing almost a quarter of the order.

According to the shipping documentation, the parcel should have contained the following items which weren't in it.

Nox Arcana, Transylvania CD
Game Mastery Line of Sight Indicator
Dragon Issue #271
Clear Card Box (240) x2

*sighs and begins to bang his head on the wall*

Sorry for the delayed response! Your order is in our shipping queue and should be going out soon.

Many thanks. I wouldn't normally be so impatient, but I'm involved in games using a couple of the books in the order, and it's much easier using physical books than PDFs for reference when away from the computer.

I placed the order on the 17th of July, and it's still listed as pending. One of the items in it has a maximum 16 day estimated time to ship, but compared to the usual turnaround on orders, this one is seeming a little delayed to me.

I will put a replacement copy in with your next subscription shipment.

thanks,
cos

Many thanks. The PDFs are good for quick reference, but nothing beats a physical copy to read. :-)

I received my latest subscription today.
Instead of receiving a copy of Pathfinder #9, I had a second copy of the Gazetteer. :-(

Can I get a copy of the Pathfinder tossed into my next subscription please?

Ah. I just should have been a little more patient. I got the shipping notification and the downloads this morning. Thanks.

I got notification that my subscription order was due to ship a week ago, but so far I haven't heard anything, and a non-subscription order that was shipped two days later has already arrived. The list of items to be shipped has vanished from my account page too, and there hasn't been any addition to my downloads page.

I saw a post saying that some folks have had their subscription orders vanish due to a bug, so can someone please check if that's happened here or if there's a delay for some other reason?

I'd like to say "Thanks" over the addition of the Dragon poster. I'm not Canadian, but like an awful lot of international subscribers I didn't get the poster with the last issue.

Unfortunatly it doesn't seem to be just Canada where the posters went missing from Dragon 359. I received both last issues today, and while the poster for Dungeon 150 was there, the Dragon Poster was missing.

Like many I'm still waiting on the Pathfinder PDF, but I can vouch for the pain of opening a large PDF file as opposed to a smaller one. I've been using Adobe Reader 7 on my main machine (though this thread has niggled me into trying out Foxit Reader 2.0) and I can read a full page of text faster than it renders from a large file. Foxit Reader seems to be a fair bit faster, but it's also buggy on the display settings. If I set it to view just one page on screen, then I expect it to show one page, and not slip off the edges as I page down. It also seems to depend a lot on the computer - on my backup machine it displays scanned image books extremely badly, to the point of illegibility, though it displays the same file fine on my main computer.

FWIW, the main machine is a P4 1.5GHz machine with 1.5 Gig of RAM running WinXP, while the backup is a P3 667MHz machine with 384 Meg of Ram and no video card running Win98.

And IMO Bookmarks should be included - it's much easier to find things using them. I'm inclined to add them to unlocked PDFs I purchase if they don't have them for ease of use.

Yes, it's working now. Many thanks for the quick fix.

This time it's the PDF for Dungeon Issue #106 with Polyhedron #165 that won't personalize.

I'm downloading it now. Many thanks for the fix.

Thanks for the response. It's good to know I'm not doing something dumb tp not get it, and look forward to getting the magazine once the problem is fixed.