Amberfire's page

All the arguing aside, I wanted to say thanks! You all have provided me with several new angles to consider for the solar roadway idea, both positive and negative.

I'll mention that I, just tonight, found interesting (possibly new) entries in their FAQ. Including that the road panels are NOT designed to melt snow with the solar, that function is outside powered only. There were a few other entries dealing with issues that were discussed in this thread. I would recommend many of you give a full read to the FAQ area, for it seemed that a number of the worries/beliefs argued over here are answered there.

Personally, I'm a supporter of this idea. Between only being at a prototype level, and all the issues that they HAVE dealt with already, I'm impressed and hopeful that enough of the rest of the issues will be solvable or non-issues to make a useful product.

Heh, if I had more time, I'd wade in myself, but school calls. Thanks again, and be NICE to each other! :)

I swear, if I'd gotten Destiny's Twin, I'd totally be making a craftshobbit right now. As-is, I'll probably get my main leveled a fair bit, then swap and level a second character a small ways. Gotta be pragmatic.

There was someone on the forum looking to sell their kickstarter pledge. That would have Destiny's Twin included. I would suggest finding their thread and seeing if still available. If it is not, you could also make your own thread stating your interest in acquiring it. I'm sure there are some guild and buddy people who had a friend bow out that would love to sell Destiny's Twin to you. It's not too late for you!

I see the point about players would create workarounds. But I also see the value in coin having at least SOME sense of weight, volume, lootability, location, etc.

How about a two level, or hybrid, system?

Give coin weight and some lootability. Also have a series of NPC 'banks' that offer 'savings accounts'. These savings would be safe and accessible from many/any settlement, but not IMMEDIATELY accessible for withdrawal. Lets say an hour delay before you get the coin. Now also make any coin sent by mail also take one hour to arrive.

Combine this with an assumed inability to have two characters online at the same time (unless you subscribe for each), and you have a system that encourages you to choose between convenience and security. People would store their wealth in the savings, but keep their spending money on hand. This system would deal with most of the discussed downsides, yet encourage people to carry some coin with them.

I'm a bit tired, so I am probably missing some issues with such a system. I would love to hear what they are, if you guys see what they are.

Heh, it is quite nice, isn't it? :)

My biggest gripe with cash shop items has always been exclusivity. If I'm paying a sub, I want ACCESS to everything. Note I did not say EASY access, just access. The fact that 'my sub wasn't good enough' to have ANY hope of access to the pets and mounts in the WoW cash shop was a recurring thorn interfering with my ability to enjoy the game. As long as the unique stuff is tradeable/sellable I'll be able to handle it.

Considering the game's focus on economy, I'm leery of putting any craftable/harvestable items for regular sale. Even if it was low level consumables only, that would still distort that market and new players decisions regarding skilling in production skills. Additionally, low level items would reasonably be the most readily available crafted items. If you wanted some, but did not have the coin, it makes more sense to me to buy, and then sell, a PLEX equivalent and use the proceeds to buy what you want.

I wouldn't object too hard to racial variants, or special races, even if they included some mechanical differentiation or benefit. Such as racial attribute bonuses/penalties.

Cosmetic skins and character re-customizations would also be acceptable to me. I LIKE the town skin idea. It could even come with an equivalent to racial bonus/penalty combos (i.e. better market, but worse walls).

Hmm, how about 'pixie dust' that, when used on an item, reduced the skill or attribute requirements to use that one item (until it is worn out or consumed)?

I also would not mind quite a few things being in the shop that were part of the features of the sub fee. In fact, I could easily see highly useful features being the 'hook' that keeps high skilled characters subscribed after they reached 'good enough' levels of skill points. I could see this including things like character ability slots, inventory/bank slots, market order limits, crafting limits and/or speed, or settlement control features.

I would not like lockbox keys AT ALL. I LIKE being able to see what is inside containers!

The craziest cash shop item I ever saw was RENTING inventory bags! That one just blew my mind, but I understand such is more acceptable in Asian games.

My buddy wanted to add some addons and didn't get back to me until 11am mountain time. But when I went in to add what he wanted, I found I could only see the addons I have already chosen for myself. There was no option to see the full list. So it would seem that, at least most of, the tool has been shut down already, and we will have to wait for the next phase to freely make more changes.

What I took from the devs on this, is that you will start with some basic skills. Enough to fill the basics of a few roles. The one I remember specifically mentioned is for gathering, but I'm sure a basic combat skill set will be present as well.

Amberfire, maybe that's why I feel so calm about the system as proposed. I'm an EVE player.

Heh, nice to see you here. We should try to meet up in EVE some time. I'm currently in Amarr high sec. You based anywhere near that?

On a tangent to this paladin thing. I don't really like that only LG gets this sort of a class. 'Holy Warrior' is such a useful schtick it should be more widely available IMHO. In DnD you see this desire reflected in the Blackguard and that CG prestige class in the early 3.0 divine book (that I can never remember the name of).

Imagine a CE version! Instead of immune to disease, how about immune to just the effects of disease?

What would a Hellknights 'Holy Warrior' look like? All law all the time! :) That would be a cool post launch role to add to the game.

@leperkhaun
I understand the situation you see. My character story is similar, I'm ranger, but I can't have ranger, so I'm trying to think of ways to work what I want into the reality of PFO as it will be. Might you be able to do some of the same? For instance, was your character raised by farmer/crafter parents, or apprenticed to the local priest, adept or town mayor? That might 'justify' some levels in some of the NPC roles or wizard or cleric. Did your character know from the time he was little he wanted to be a paladin? What would he have done for a few years before he found his ultimate calling? Might he have listened to a recruiter for the big demon Crusade and gotten some military training? That would justify some fighter. Was he a street orphan? There is some rogue. Look for cracks or blank spots in your backstory and fill em in!

Its not optimized, and you might never again use some of these skills after you get paladin, but at least you'd have something that sort of fit into your story. Not to mention it makes your character's story more interesting. Now you are not just the crusader, you are the pious urchin saved from a life of crime! But you still remember some of the skills you learned back then, making you your order's go to guy for certain situations.

Heh, I'm liking this exercise more and more. :)

We already know they are substantially modifying the d20 system, and frankly, I hope they go further. I'd love it if the guts of the PFO system look nothing like d20 but, and this is the only REALLY important part, it is great to play! In fact I encourage and plead with Goblinworks team to use the d20 type system only as ideas and flavor. The only important part is making a good system. It already sounds to me like more weapon types will be useful in PFO then in TT (who uses a dagger in TT if they can help it?).

DDO tried to follow the d20 system, and while it is 'ok', it is clunky and awkward in practice. In fact, the DDO team seems to be trying to move farther away from the d20 feel, and it feels like a good decision to me.

Anyway, I really like the idea of building towards your character concept, rather then the p&p class. I want Amberfire to be a ranger, but to me that really means: a self sufficient explorer and scout. Go out, find the enemy or resource node, and get out, to call in the thunder! Honestly, I always found the animal companion to be far too weak to be much beyond a role playing aid, and minor out of combat support. As part of a backstory, fighter training and exploitable resource identification in the military would be a natural fit.

I also get the impression some of you don't 'get' the wide and flat skill system. And to be honest, you'd need to play EVE, or something like it, to really get the feeling. Flexibility is where true power lies in this sort of game. Sure, you could laser focus to climb the 'levels' of one role, but then you are a one trick pony. You couldn't gather, refine, craft, tank, cast, scout, merchant, lead, run settlements, etc., and those are just the roles/tasks we KNOW of! You are also MAYBE, at best, 5% better at your one role then a non specialist, but have no defense against a tactic not in your specialization.

Unless you could consistently hire out for your one role, you'd probably also be poorer off then someone who decided to get a bunch of skills only to 'really good' (in EVE this would mean skilling to lvl 4, instead of 4 times the investment to reach the max lvl 5) and then do some work on their defenses, or a second role mixed in.

The 'sparkle pony' and their ilk ALWAYS annoyed me and made me mad. I was paying a subscription for a game and ALL its content, not 'only this much' of its content. And some of that content was pretty darn sweet damn it! Oddly enough, I also found it a fairly serious immersion breaker. But obviously, $40 mil speaks pretty loudly that I was not part of the majority.

I could go on and on about this barrier and how my subscription wasn't 'good enough' for full access, but the kicker, for me anyway, was that I would have been a lot happier if THERE WAS AN IN GAME WAY TO ACQUIRE THESE 'SPARKLE PONIES'. That would have given me my full access, even if I had to (within reason) play harder, or longer, or luckier, or profitably, to get it. I could get there from inside the game, if I choose.

That is part of where I got my equity, through access and possibility. If it was there, I could make a project or goal of doing it. It gave me things to strive for. (And strive I did, before I left I managed to max most reputations, gather a large number of pets and mounts, get over half the achievements in the game and a large number of titles, including 'the Insane'.)

Thankfully I don't think Goblinworks is going to implement much, if any, paywall. I'm fairly sure any 'sparkle ponies' will be tradeable and/or sellable.

Actually, there is a second option, depending on how you pledged. You could upgrade YOUR pledge to the buddy tier, friend pays you for his half, and then make your fried the buddy. This way your friend also gets the Kickstarter exclusives you got.