Goblin Squad Member
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Interesting additions to the GUI. Are those all of the active ability slots we are seeing in this picture?
Also, that cloak trailing effect looks great.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Very nice. The art looks.... I don't know how to describe it... more "realistically gritty" than I could hope for. Less like a cartoon (the buildings and the vistas) and more like I imagine things when I get to play TT.
The Crowdfunding info is very welcome. I know some people that are now setting their "idle" mix to a higher rate.
Good job and a hearty welcome to your new team mates!
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Goblin Squad Member
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I love the look of the buildings, and the elegant little touches like the stained glass and the arches. I noticed both the outer settlement wall and what looked like a higher wall inside, with rooftops peeking over it, in screenshot #1; the keep, I presume?
+1 on wondering about new forums, and with that, a question on when we Hellknights Most Wanted will get to let the artists have our descriptions and wanted poster crimes. Nit-picky, I know, and it only affects a relative few of us so if the answer is "after Open Enrollment starts" I'll understand; I'm just getting very excited about bringing Deianira to life!
And thank you for the financial snapshot - that satisfies the numbers side of my brain.
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CEO, Goblinworks
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I will say that the look of the game is much more "naturalistic" than most MMOs I've seen. I don't mean it's photorealistic, but the color palette is more "natural" than a lot of games. The clothes of the characters add a lot of color and there will be flags and banners and such, but the buildings are made out of stone & wood and they look like ... stone & wood.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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I will say that the look of the game is much more "naturalistic" than most MMOs I've seen. I don't mean it's photorealistic, but the color palette is more "natural" than a lot of games. The clothes of the characters add a lot of color and there will be flags and banners and such, but the buildings are made out of stone & wood and they look like ... stone & wood.
Better than the "realistic" standard of using a palette of desaturated brown...
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Goblin Squad Member
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Hey, so apparently, um.. i neglected to allocate all my funds from last year's kickstarter. *blush*
Is there anything I can do about that? It was mostly going to go to add-ons. I figure its an appropriate juncture to ask that, especially since the new funding pools have been announced.
I reallly need to start wearing that headband of intelligence for more than 8 hours at a time :P
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm very grateful for the lines of communciation and the transparency that has marked this project from the start. It's incredibly meaningful, and heartening, that you all have enough of a stewardship framework to lay out financial summaries. I'm equally grateful and impressed by the regularity with which you all answer our questions, and engage in dialogue. And while a little mote subtle, I'm very encouraged by the integrity involved in not over promising--I'm used to be BS'ed by developers. Not being jerked by developers means a ton.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The time of day dramatically changes the pallet as time passes in the game, most of mikes screenshots have been from straight middle in the afternoon with sun over head and somewhat cool light, but that changes to oranges and pinks towards sunset/rise and into purples and dark blues at night with spots of warm color from characters carrying torches and lights on buildings. the change of pallet makes it feel exciting as you play, as in our last playtest they set the time to sunset and it was dramatic as you played.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The time of day dramatically changes the pallet as time passes in the game, most of mikes screenshots have been from straight middle in the afternoon with sun over head and somewhat cool light, but that changes to oranges and pinks towards sunset/rise and into purples and dark blues at night with spots of warm color from characters carrying torches and lights on buildings. the change of pallet makes it feel exciting as you play, as in our last playtest they set the time to sunset and it was dramatic as you played.
Excellent. Eye candy in all forms is appreciated. :)
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Goblin Squad Member
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The time of day dramatically changes the pallet as time passes in the game, most of mikes screenshots have been from straight middle in the afternoon with sun over head and somewhat cool light, but that changes to oranges and pinks towards sunset/rise and into purples and dark blues at night with spots of warm color from characters carrying torches and lights on buildings. the change of pallet makes it feel exciting as you play, as in our last playtest they set the time to sunset and it was dramatic as you played.
How dark are the purples and blues? My contrast vision is somewhat compromised (oh, the joys of aging!) and I find very dark in-game palettes to be difficult for me.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Hey, so apparently, um.. i neglected to allocate all my funds from last year's kickstarter. *blush*
Is there anything I can do about that? It was mostly going to go to add-ons. I figure its an appropriate juncture to ask that, especially since the new funding pools have been announced.I reallly need to start wearing that headband of intelligence for more than 8 hours at a time :P
I believe that your funds would have been allocated exactly as you selected in the Kickstarter. The Fulfillment Tool was only there to allow you to reallocated if you wanted to.
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Well since this blog directly mentions me, I guess I'll pop in and say hello. I feel I need to start by saying that you guys are an awesome community and reading through the forums has become my go-to activity during breaks.
Although not mentioned in the post I've actually been hanging around the Goblinworks office since the very beginning of Q4. I can happily say that it's an awesome place to be.
The time of day dramatically changes the pallet as time passes in the game, most of mikes screenshots have been from straight middle in the afternoon with sun over head and somewhat cool light, but that changes to oranges and pinks towards sunset/rise and into purples and dark blues at night with spots of warm color from characters carrying torches and lights on buildings. the change of pallet makes it feel exciting as you play, as in our last playtest they set the time to sunset and it was dramatic as you played.
Do those torches have any significant effect in gameplay?
Do you drop a torch in order to fight with a 2h weapon or use both hands?Does it keep burning for a while, or otherwise persist as an object?
Any magical light spells yet?
I like the noticeable day/night light cycle, exactly why I wanted that feature to begin with...
Just gives more immersion and connection with the flow of in-game-world time.
Well since this blog directly mentions me, I guess I'll pop in and say hello. I feel I need to start by saying that you guys are an awesome community and reading through the forums has become my go-to activity during breaks.
Although not mentioned in the post I've actually been hanging around the Goblinworks office since the very beginning of Q4. I can happily say that it's an awesome place to be.
You may want to get some sort of staff member designation added to your tag so people don't mistake you for one of the proles :)
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Goblin Squad Member
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I love the art style.
The sole reason WoW never got more than a few hours of my time was that I could not get past the cartoony graphics. And while I'll still try EQNext they are going down that same Disney path.
I initially ignored Wildstar for the same reason but that team is so good at making videos they've brainwashed me into giving it a try.
You may want to get some sort of staff member designation added to your tag so people don't mistake you for one of the proles :)
Thank you, I'll make sure to get that added on.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I am really really surprised that GW is putting financial information like this out there, more so because its broken down and there is no requirement to do so.
Between this and all of the developers' transparency through out the development of this game I really feel that GW is a company whose word i can trust. As someone who backed as a kickstarter, GW has better communicated than any other project iv heard about or backed. As a gamer it means that coming into this game, i know what to expect, and i trust that GW will make choices that are best for the game.
Thank you for that.
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Goblin Squad Member
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We will continue to offer our Alpha Access package. Purchasing that package will be the only way to get the Daily Deal items from the Kickstarter campaign, and it includes free game time throughout all of Early Enrollment no matter how long that phase of development lasts.
I do not recall that bit I bolded being mentioned during the Kickstarter, but the reward levels were altered in various ways during the campaign, so I may have missed it at the time. Is this a new perk to Alpha pledges, and does it apply to Kickstarter-Alphas and Goblinstore-Alphas alike?
Also, during the KS there really wasn't a way to combine items like the Buddy pledge with an Alpha pledge, and with the Daily Deal items (and initially, the order of acceptance into EE), the date of one's initial pledge mattered. Would it be possible, via the Goblinstore, to add Buddy or Guild accounts which would benefit from the pledge date of the primary account they're linked to? For example, while alpha access would not apply to a Buddy account added to an Alpha pledge (since alpha access was never a feature of Buddy) would it get Daily Deals, Destiny's Twin, and whatever else was date-dependent based on the date of its 'parent' account?
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CEO, Goblinworks
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@Pax Keovar it was announced during one of the updates during the Kickstarter, and it's on the Pledge Guide
We're not going to go back into the system for Kickstarter benefits for the Goblin Squad Store. You won't be able to access those benefits except via the Alpha tier (if you will give us $1k, we'll give you all the cool stuff. ;). )
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Pax Keovar it was announced during one of the updates during the Kickstarter, and it's on the Pledge Guide
We're not going to go back into the system for Kickstarter benefits for the Goblin Squad Store. You won't be able to access those benefits except via the Alpha tier (if you will give us $1k, we'll give you all the cool stuff. ;). )
For the first item, thanks, I guess I missed it.
For the second, I'm not sure you understood me, so I'll just lay out an example.
Say I wanted alpha access and a 'buddy' account. There was no way to combine those two. Making a second KS account for a second pledge would have made that second account more expensive and its entry date would have lost most of the daily deals. Buying another account through the GSS now would not only miss the daily deals, but the destiny twin as well. If there were a way to add a buddy account to an existing alpha account, then only the primary, alpha account would have alpha access, but its original pledge date could apply to the buddy account features.
Buying a second alpha account would be stupid because of the character wipe. The point of alpha access is to get a hands-on preview of the game by helping GW test things. It's unlikely that one player could use two copies of alpha access to any greater effect than one. If 'monster play' actually becomes a reality that might be a continuing perk, but I doubt that will be a high priority since it would mean spending significant dev time for the occasional use of (maybe) a couple hundred players.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I really like the art style. Shroud of the Avatar (from Garriott) is going for a similar style and I really liked it when I "played" in their pre-alpha weekend.
A medievalish (what a word)style I would call it.
There are indeed many ways to add color to such a realistic style: as mentioned, a colorful sunset will look extra beautiful in such a setting.
Also the clothes and armors. But how about colorful signs for Inns and Shops. Also, there are many examples in the world where the houses in towns and villages were painted in all kinds of colors, even though the buildings themselves are old style.
A simple Google search will give you: Colorful towns of the world
Not saying that every town should look like that! :)
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Andius - no, although Mark, Lisa and I are talking about talking about having a plan to have a plan. So it's moving up the priority queue. :)
I am hereby officially claiming Ryans smiley. A purple Legendary item does not even come close in rareness.
:) (Mine aren't very rare).
On another note, I was wondering if GW is considering putting the Destiny's Twin back up in the store. Not for 35 dollars as it was during the KS but for a higher price.
I realize that the feature would directly eat in your sub-based income, however it may also keep players subscribing for longer who are on the fence of going ftp/mtx for a while because they do not want to lose the double-deal.
Also there is still a good chance that many early birds buyers will end up not playing at all: I figure this happens with every MMO that does pre-orders and other pre-release deals. I am very curious at those percentages, I am sure there are some figures around. I realize that GW would not want to monetize specifically on this behavior but it could still be "easy starter money". (EDIT: just realized that selling accounts would negate this, no matter if accountselling is endorsed or not: DT accounts would most likely be very much in demand anyway so GW better take a cut).
Lastly, if and when PFO becomes successful (which we all hope) then the number of Destiny's Twin accounts will be dwarved anyway by the rising sub-numbers 5 years from now; but they certainly would have helped make this game a reality.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I agree, I remember when they offered it. I immediately made two extra KS accounts and bought into the 35 dollar tier.
I am pretty sure it helped them a lot to reach the goal.
However, I do not think this should necessarily be one of those perks that have to be unique to early bird pledgers. Once the game is gathering steam, then off course this perk would be history.
I think it would be more of a calculation for GW, how much development-money they would get, offering this perk again for a while, against lost income in the future.
However, it could indeed lead to people "speculating": buying into a whole lot of them now with the idea to sell them later. Would still be risky, especially if GW would offer them for a much higher price. The game would have to be successfull for that to work, if not then you lost a lot of money. I am still not seeing the disadvantage for GW with this, unless they can already calculate that on average every DT account is costing them too much in the long run.
They could just want to limit trading of accounts to a minimum though (not forbid it, but curb it) and then offering more DT accounts would probably not wise.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Some random thoughts on future Goblinworks store:
Class packs were offered for 10 dollars. Some basic weapons and equipment. Why should someone buy a class pack if PLEX will also be sold in-game? If PFO is anything like EVE you’ll be able to get a lot of low-level kit for a PLEX equivalent.
Will regional trait packs be offered? During KS these were add-ons that provided an achievement, a title and a small mechanical effect. Various Goblinworks posts on the forums have since stated that no pay to win type mechanical bonuses will be available. So will this type of package be offered again, and if so will the mechanical effect be limited to say a non-combat effect?
Will Twice-Marked of Pharasma be offered? During KS these were add-ons that provided additional content and mechanical benefit. Various Goblinworks posts on the forums have since stated that no pay to win type mechanical bonuses will be available. So will this type of package be offered again, and if so will the mechanical benefit be limited to say a non-combat benefit?
The Crowdforger Kickstarter level gives several miniatures as a benefit. I would imagine the cost of producing these, handling, packaging and posting these to backers is not insignificant (postage was not a further cost to the backer at this backer level). Perhaps Goblinworks might offer an option for Crowdforger+ level backers to select some alternative benefit as an option to save Goblinworks some cash. Perhaps some PFO shop credit, Paizo shop credit, one of the add-ons or a set of daily deals.
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Goblin Squad Member
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As one of those players who missed out on the original Kickstarter(s), I would love to see most of Kickstarter rewards available (especially the Destiny's Twin option), even at higher specific costs (but probably not thousands).
I would suggest have both single-item as well as "package" buy-ins that might allow for a small percentage of savings to the total cost for a larger set. That way you would get less picking and choosing of specific perceived higher-yield items.
