Ace-of-Spades's page

My forum handle is Ace-of-Spades and I'm a semi-regular lurker here and sometimes poster.

I've been an on again-off again role player on a hardcore D&D Neverwinter Nights server for the better part of the last decade. That being said the philosophy behind PFO and the open sandbox world has me enthralled. I was a last minute Kickstarter backer.

I have no affiliations as of yet, but I plan to get involved with a mercenary type guild (which may have something to do with reading so much Glen Cook lately.)

Its likely that extremely high-end gear will be a function of massive component requirements and highly advanced specialized production facilities rather than getting a few bits of stastically rare resources.

You forgot "...or bought with real money from the store."

Don't freak out, that was a joke...mostly.

On the Neverwinter Nights PW server I've played for years we called these folks Player Guides or PG for short. Usually they would be denoted with "PG" in their title on the forums and sometimes in game. There was also a tool you could ping to get a list of all PGs on the server or shoot your question to an available PG. They are there to help new players with questions about our server, rules, role playing, etc...

Just pointing this out as people seem to like the "Guide" title.

There's lots of stuff that I want to know, but that's not the proper subject of the FAQ.

How does the sandbox nature impact the user experience?

How will player looting work?

What will the player experience be like during gameplay, with separate emphases on each major system (PvP, PvE, crafting, exploration)?

Why is my characters' reputation important to me?

What could I get locked out of due to alignment?

How different are the different races?

How can new people get into EE?

One of the better constructed and more realistic posts I've seen so far. Bravo, sir.

...I think he made that up!

:-P

I specifically said "banks for storing coin" figuring everyone would know we would obviously need banks for storing other types of materials, equipment, treasures, etc.

@Dario,
Good call on the loan/interest thing! I hadn't thought of that aspect of currency banking.

Thanks for the clarification above everyone, makes sense when it's explained.

I don't necessarily think it would be a massive spike in coin leaving the market...maybe changing hands though (to whomever sacked the settlement).

One thing is for sure though, if we can carry all of our coin wealth on us at all times without fear of losing it, we really wont ever need banks for storing coin.

Thanks for that link, Nihimon.

I'm a little surprised by that decision though. I would have at least thought a small percentage would be lost or lootable.

Also, coin will not be lost when a player dies...

Have they confirmed this somewhere? I'm not sure I've seen them say anywhere that coin would be lootable or destroyed upon death...but I'm not sure they've said it wouldn't either.

Neverwinter has a good character generation system but the camera position used in-game is always a set distance from the character, so shortcuts could be taken on which of the character's unique numbers (character appearance values) will display. This 'shortcut' led to so many player characters looking like clones. Just as objects disappear when far away, so do unique features disappear from a certain distance, leaving all looking very much alike. This is exacerbated by limitations in available clothing/gear.

So the depth available in the Neverwinter character creation system is irrelevant except only in that the players cannot complain that the character creation system does provide enough options for a custom appearance. It provides plenty of options, but those options are not part of what the game actually renders in the game world

...yuck. That's just turrible.

The character has to be given priority at EA because the playing experience starts with the character. It's the first system in the game. It's the one players will have to live with for their entire PFO career. I'd say it's the one and only thing that has to be robust and complete when the curtain goes up.

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. I don't want to be hamstrung with an ugly generic character for my entire PFO "career" because I was part of EE and less options were available to me at that time.

I like the idea of a timer that reveals more items over a search time, maybe displayed by a timer bar with tick marks for each item. This kind of represents actually having to search your victim, and maybe the more valuable goods were well hidden and took you a little longer to find. As the timer moves along you can mouse over and observe each item and decide if you want to snatch it up or pass and keep waiting. You could take everything (available), nothing or select items this way.

Think of it like a traveler stitching his valuable gems or coins into the hem of his clothes. Of course then there could be a search skill that would reduce the time taken to reveal additional items of greater value.

Why can't they just tell me to pay them a fixed amount once a month and enjoy their damn game? >_<

Shut up and take my money!

I just really loathe cash shops, I think they've ruined MMO games.

What an awesome idea and neatly designed tool. Kudos to you Mr. Richter!

I am sure you all have thought of everything, but I'll throw in my thought regardless.
My suggestion: include a way to keep and restore backups or even better, track revisions and edits as each occur and keep a chronological list of them. This of course allows you to go back and easily revert to a previous working set of values if anything goes wrong...like something catastrophic.

I only bring this up because I am currently using a large excel file to compile data for my masters thesis. I'm using dropbox to have multiple technicians access and enter data "on the fly," daily. I've already discovered to my horror what happens when multiple people are trying to simultaneously access an excel file and update it...you get accidental overwrites and lost data. Thank science dropbox allows me to go back and see past revisions, when they were saved, and even who did the editing.

Again, this is probably irrelevant. I just like to ramble sometimes...

While you could technically arrange to buy one as an individual, practically you can not actually do so.

Yeah, if you read the article on that websites blog that goes along with that image, he basically talks about how Titans are only ever really owned and controlled by HUGE alliances and organizations. This also makes estimating their actual value very difficult because they are never really sold over the open market.

I've actually never played EVE myself, but I find that blog very informative. I only started reading about EVE recently after learning about PFO and what a sandbox MMO was. I do find it fascinating!

Like many things in EVE, Titans are not for lone wolves. That pisses some people off. You can't be über in a good sandbox MMO just by being real-world rich in time or money. You're going to need to be a social participant.

Also, this ^^. As much as I love being a lone-wolf, I also love social interaction in a persistent world environment. So this comment sounds like it bodes well for a lot of people concerned in this thread.

Ryan Dancey wrote:

The most important thing to know about a Titan is that it's not something you could rationally ever expect to make yourself. Making one requires the labor of thousands of players. That's why they're not only valuable, they're rare.

It may take hundreds of dollars, but I could buy one with real world money. (thousands?)

Apparently $7600 to be exact, according to this:

...and might I add: holy s***!

...it might well be the case that the dragon is killed by a lone Bard while seven armies fight over the treasure.

Hey now, let's keep this serious. A bard? Hah.

Thanks for the links ya'll.

...And holy wow there are a lot of them to look through.

You're assuming that they intend to have those ridiculously rare drops in PFO that people will want to go insane for. Maybe they wont exist in the first place?

I also dislike the idea of a token system.

My main character probably wont be involved with deities, however the alt I plan on playing will be a Cleric. I've only ever played in the D&D Forgotten Realms setting however, so I know absolutely nothing about the Pathfinder world and lore. What would be closest deity to Bane? >=)

On another note, maybe I should brush up on the lore of Pathfinder if I'm going to be playing in this setting. Is there a Faiths & Pantheons book for Pathfinder?

Ace-of-Spades wrote:

I agree Doggan, but not if it wasn't tied directly to the games mass reputation mechanic.

Perhaps it could be made a separate crafter "Contract Completion Reputation." Make it a percentage. Say you're really consistent at fulfilling your contracts and you have a 100% delivery rate. Something comes up, you can't make it IG to deliver your product so you take a hit. Maybe you now have a 97% delivery rate. Not a terrible thing to see when you're looking at bids and their reputation for delivering products.

The biggest danger in establishing contract completion reputation would be people using alts or friends to establish an artificial reputation, using that to qualify for a big contract, then taking the rep hit and the resources they were supposed to craft into products. It's a crooked world out there, sometimes.

Touché sir, touché.

Welp...
[Goes back to the drawing board]

I agree Doggan, but not if it wasn't tied directly to the games mass reputation mechanic.

Perhaps it could be made a separate crafter "Contract Completion Reputation." Make it a percentage. Say you're really consistent at fulfilling your contracts and you have a 100% delivery rate. Something comes up, you can't make it IG to deliver your product so you take a hit. Maybe you now have a 97% delivery rate. Not a terrible thing to see when you're looking at bids and their reputation for delivering products.

ooh yea contract bidding sounds really good. It would be nice to apply and send messages and things too, so rather then a auction that keeps going lower, you get say 3 bids, 1 is from someone whos at say 2k another at 1k, or another for 1.5k with more experience then the 1k bid, and possibly offers some sort of guarantee to sweeten the deal and you decide to take the 1.5k bid. I really love the idea of a bidding contract.

Or perhaps he has higher reputation? Maybe even implementing reputation earned by fulfilling crafting contracts?

KarlBob wrote:

Need a Holy Avenger sword with keywords for advanced paladin abilities, crafted by a master smith? Auction house.

This sort of thing could either be fulfilled with a buy order (place a buy order with a given price and anyone with the appropriate item can sell it to you), or a bidding contract (the inverse of an auction, where sellers try to underbid each other to fulfill the contract). I've not seen the latter implemented in a game, but it could be interesting - and not just for specialty items.

I really like both those ideas. Given that I have worked for contractors in RL, I love the contract bidding. That would be really cool to see in an MMO for crafted goods.

A lawful good settlement that has an evil necromancer summoning undead in his basement would take a toll on it's indexes. People would not really want him there cause he is making the settlement less efficient.

WITCH HUNT!

She's a witch, burn her!

Oh, by the way, we still don't know how adventuring parties will really work. I'm hoping they have absolutely no alignment requirements--we've all played in the D&D game with the one Chaotic Evil halfling ranger, or the one Lawful Neutral kobold duelist.

So sure, you'll have to split up when it comes to training. Otherwise, though, you can stick together without trouble.

I haven't kept up with it in awhile so I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure this was an OotS reference? If so, thank you. :D

Call me crazy, but this sounds like it may be one of the coolest/best alignment systems I've seen yet.

When you mentioned the two name Neverwinter system I thought you were referring to Bioware's Neverwinter. That game uses a 2 name system but utilized account name for tells or private messages.

Either way, I'll be happy with a two name system...or any system really as long as I get the name(s) I would like. I just hope my reserved character name nets me the name I want before someone else nabs it! :)

I love almost everything about this charter! Being someone who plans to play a mercenary type character of the LE/LN alignment, this is right up my alley. I'm not offering to sign any dotted lines, but out of all the guilds/charters I've looked through...this one I think I'll be seeking out in EE. Good luck, I hope this gets off the ground!

I love the Black Company series! Working on finishing the last few books right now actually. I plan to play a mercenary type character in PFO and I would have loved to join up with a company based on one of my favorite mercenary stories.

However, as others have stated above, I do not agree with the Neutral Good alignment...at all. Definitely TN, leaning towards LN/LE. That's my opinion as a fan of the series though. I'm a little bummed at the lack of effort or originality put into the charter for a company name I like so much. I guess I'll have to watch what develops for this chartered company as the game nears launch. Good luck, you chose some big boots to fill!

I by no means know these things for a fact as I have not played NWO or any previous PW game, but from what I've read in a few articles PW/Cryptic knew about the exploitable bug that caused their economic meltdown. Apparently it existed in previous games of theirs and was dealt with there as well after being discovered. This is how players got the idea to try it, to see if PW/Cryptic had made the same mistake...which they had, unfortunately. Some players had even filed tickets and tried to bring it to their attention prior to the crash. Again, maybe this isn't true but it sure makes some of the comments I've read in this thread about it being a unique or unfortunate accident kind of laughable. Sounds like it was kind of their own damn fault.

I'd hate to be the guy who completely overlooked adding in a couple sets of absolute value bars.

Quote:

3. I feel more casual players are unlikely to want to sub if the only benefit is 30 days training in a month. I am unfamiliar with EvE, but can you queue training up to happen automatically, to prevent any possible wastage of value?

We're not targeting casual players. That's for games that expect to have millions of players. We're targeting a small number of hard core players who are obsessed with the game.

@Ace-of-Spades: What question did you feel was unanswered?

The sentence that ends with a question mark.

I'm fairly certain I know the answer as I've been following PFO for awhile, but general clarification might be nice after this discussion about payments, subscriptions, training time, etc.

As well received as that statement was, it still didn't answer the actual question put forth by that poster.

"seriously?! I know this is about a game, but..."

Seriously, did you really just follow THAT opening statement with such a comment?

@Southraven: Thank you!

For once, I agree with Richter Bones. I really don't want to see a system biased towards one side of the alignment scale. This IS coming from someone who role played a Lawful Evil character for a very long time, but I planned to most likely play LN in PFO. I still want to see equal treatment on both sides.

I wonder how carrying multiple weapon/gear sets will work with losing items on death/loot....

Ace-of-Spades wrote:

Firstly, last I checked beer was some 90%+ water...alcohol is just a diuretic.

Alcohol is a diuretic, hence why it dehydrates you when you drink it. Unless you're buying non-alcoholic beer, beer will dehydrate you.

When you urinate after drinking alcohol and it is clear does not mean you're hydrated, it just means the only "waste" you're removing from your body is H2O.

...I just assumed this would be understood when I used the word "diuretic."

Back on topic: I understand the desire for realism, and I as much as anyone else love enhancing my role playing experience...but I don't see the need for a hunger-thirst system. In my opinion it will just hinder my playing experience rather than enrich it.

Ah thank you, Dario.

Here is the proper link for those that want to read the entire post, or thread even.

Ryan Dancey in Character Creation Thread

Found an actual statement on Respec'ing by Ryan Dancey (albeit a brief one) in another thread:

Thread on Character Customization

EDIT: Sorry it's about a third of the way down the page. Not sure how to link directly to posts.

I was more or less intending just reassigning skills, not a complete change from Fighter to Wizard.

As far as race goes, I'm not sure you should be allowed to switch races when a new one comes out and carry over all your progress.

Thanks for the good responses guys. I agree that it probably wont be necessary in a continual skill learning system. For instance, I spend the first year playing as an adventurer, then I want to settle down and start a smithy. At that point I just start learning to craft.

However, I also see the other side of the coin. This game is going to attract a variety of players, not just the hardcore persistent world RPers. Being is right, people are going to want Respec options.

...When does this game come out again? [/sarcasm]

First of all I apologize if this has been asked and/or addressed in another thread. I'm not sure I've found the answer to this question in any interviews or blogs, but I may have just missed it.

Does anyone know if they plan to offer the option to ReSpec a character? That is paying a fee (in-game currency or RL currency) to wipe and reassign skill progression? Maybe it's irrelevant to the type of skill system they will be using? I don't know, enlighten me.

We had bearings on alignment? It's a debate as old as D&D itself. Black. White. Shades of Grey.

What if PO just...doesn't have alignments?

They're already not constraining characters to classes. Why constrain us to the definitions of a location on an alignment chart?

People don't walk around in real life wearing a sign with their alignment or intentions printed on it, how would you know in a game either? Until you witness them doing acts of questionable integrity....

Firstly, last I checked beer was some 90%+ water...alcohol is just a diuretic.

I read the first page of this thread then skipped here because it is waaay too much debate to sift through. All I'll say is I completely despise hunger-thirst systems and I REALLY hope one doesn't find it's way into Pathfinder Online.

I don't really understand the reasoning behind the argument between eating/drinking for a buff or not eating/drinking for a debuff. If you want a hunger-thirst system that gives a constant debuff for not eating or drinking...why stop there? You're obviously desiring that for RP reasons and realism. Realism would be slow death from starvation and dehydration, not a meager nuisance in the form of a debuff. Let the buffs stack (even when offline) until your character dies. Silly right? I think it's better to "assume" your character constantly eats mediocre quality food and when they eat and drink at say an Inn or camp they get a buff for higher quality food/drink consumption.

I'd definitely be interested in this. I roleplayed a Banite (follower of the LE god Bane) in a D&D Forgotten Realms based PW for several years.

I am not a fan of Chaotic Evil PKing everything using half a brain. I am into Cold, calculated evil. Think Darth Vader, Mafia, Corporations. These organizations usually still have a very strict code however.

I've also had a lot of thoughts about doing a LN mercenary company. A group that will fight for whomever or whatever cause if the price is right, yet still sticks to a rigid code and contract. Much like the Black Company if anyone is familiar with Glen Cook's novels.

Well, I think you've convinced me. I'll change my vote from mounts to pets. Seeing as I'd like to try a Ranger-Fighter oriented character first anyway... I still want a sweet mount system with some depth though.

Reading through all of that was kind of entertaining.

"Fast, cheap, or functional? Pick any two."

~some smart dude

^ Genius. One of the best quotes I've read in awhile.