Corwynn Maelstrom's page

"I am disappointed that you don't play the way I play so I had to weigh in on a thread about an adventure which is demonstrably miscategorized as a 'quest'..."

I think "get over yourself" was a pretty polite response to the need to chide others about how their fun is wrong and bad, really.

I've now had items in my sidecart not ship multiple times. Can you please ensure that my entire sidecart is properly added to this month's subscription order (33319868)?

I think this needs a nudge after I updated the payment method. :)

I prefer phone support for some issues. I am glad Paizo has it. I would rather see it continue.

Many changes will seem harder than the way it used to be because you're just not used to doing things the new way yet. Give it time.

Orders 7942150 and 7962269 are pending and need to be merged so they will ship when everything is ready. Once they've been properly merged I can update the payment method so they're ready to go when everything is in stock. Thanks in advance!

My latest order should have activated 4 subscriptions (it even says it did, and three are showing next to my name here), but I am missing the Pathfinder Accessories sub in my account. (As such I can't turn on the Pathfinder Society Scenarios free sub.) The products were listed in the pending order (Screen, Char Pack, Combat Pad, Cond Deck) so that should be fine...I hope. I just need my account to actually reflect that I have a Pathfinder Accessories sub.

Additionally, in spite of the fact that I selected the Lost Omens World Guide as my starting product, the system is telling me that I will be shipped the final P1 Campaign volume. Please adjust this so that I don't receive anything until the Lost Omens World Guide.

Thanks for your time.

So I think the reason there are more than one check you can use is both flavor and the developers not wanting to pigeonhole anyone. From a power point of view having any stat higher than Dex seems less then stellar. I know there are people out there who are going to have OP with Max str, wis, int, chr and for those snowflakes they will still get to use trick attack well as anyone thanks to the options .

This right here is pretty much it. If you want to run an Operative which relies on a "non-optimal stat" (i.e. they are not a Dex monster) you can still have one which does the job with their Trick Attack. You can play a role which is "bad" mechanically and not totally screw up your combat ability.

Yes, if you are a "min-max, DPR, the party is relying on me to be perfect" type of player, it ONLY makes sense to take Ghost. But you are not the only person who plays RPGs. Your view is not the only one which matters.

For the same reason that people will play melee-specialized Vesk mystics of the god of strife, people will play Operatives that have extra high Charisma stats...and THOSE Operatives may very well take SPY, even though it's not mechanically as good. But they will still be able to do their jobs, because the designers actually bothered to give the Operative options.

Again, it's obvious that you can, with rolled stats, have whatever.

Hell, if your GM lets you, you can just have all 26s.

Point buy, however, is the ONLY legal method for playing Starfinder in Organized Play and—since a lot of people started gaming after rolling stats was the norm—it's the preferred method for the majority of tables. As such you will see a large number of people talking about point buy characters.

Even those of us who DO allow rolling. Because obviously if someone says x is impossible, it's not going to have anything to do with rolls.

We have a Ysoki Operative in the group with something like a +13 to Stealth, and in our first session, when trying to trick attack a CR 1/2, he rolled 5 or less on his d20 FOUR TIMES IN A ROW. We were all breaking out in laughter by that point.

I missed all my checks at +18 against the final encounter in AP1. It can happen. (I also missed like crazy...)

I see the exploit you're referencing now. In any case, Trick Attack is one of those things that will rarely fail with an Operative who is paying attention to their setup. Even if you don't take the exploit you're not going to have too difficult a time making your checks.

For our Starfinder Society games on Fantasy Grounds, GM Talwynor and I repurposed the Pathfinder Society Inventory Tracking Sheet. It's got a new logo, a bit of a different (slightly more "modern") font treatment, the elimination of charged items from tracking, and an additional notes field wherein anything interesting and relevant to the character's gear can be easily recorded. (And, of course, it is a form-fillable PDF.)

As characters begin to level up after 1st, this tracking becomes more relevant to our brave SFS pioneers. (My own Professor Zoom will be level 2 after Tuesday, so I needed to nail down his starting equipment!) I figured there's no sense in NOT sharing the work.

Please feel free to download the inventory tracker and pass it around. The sheet is available at the following shortlink:

fbt.li/sfsinvtracker

They're equipment. They're not expendable or duration-based. They apply IMO.

Why was the word snipers included in this title? Clearly the intent was, "Technomancers are the Best." No? ;)

(Also, 1000' is not 1000m, so you can only snipe from like 3 kilometers away.)

Personally I'd be interested to know what MMOs you've played where there was no wipe. For any MMO that I'm aware of that is aiming at the same level as Pathfinder, there has been a wipe.

Second, from what Vic Wertz and Ryan Dancey have both said on the forums, this game has the backing to release the game in 2016. It's 'money in the bank' to coin a phrase. What this Kickstarter is about is helping to release the game earlier than that projected date. As a reward for that backing, you get into beta early and we've not yet cleared up whether you will have to pay for the beta, which given the game will be free-to-play would seem at odds with their business model.

Apparently you are not reading the same things I am reading.

Subscription during early release and Subscriptions + Hybrid Microtransactions post release is what they have stated TODAY.

The problem is many people will assume that nobody has to pay during early access. What happens when they actually get their 3 months early access and it runs out and they're sitting there with a half-broken game going "why the heck am I paying for this" . . .

Again, the only people who directly profit from an earlier release are the investors and Goblinworks. They're apparently wanting to make that happen on the backs of the users. That, to me, is disingenuous, and contrary to the actual crowdfunding and investing spirit.

Corwynn, Ryan has stated that they have already secured alternate funding but that this Kickstarter will allow them to shave a year off of development time.

You're also RECEIVING a three-month game subscription. I agree it isn't clearly worded as to whether a subscription will be in place for the beta but I would suspect this to mean a three-month subscription at release. We're obviously looking to Ryan to clear that up.

You are incorrect. That has in fact been clarified. This is why I am concerned.

From the project comments:

We think of the Beta more like Gmail Beta than a Beta Test. The purpose of the Beta isn't to test, it's to start with a very small, very controlled environment and number of users, and allow the system to grow and change based on the needs of real people. Our "theory" of what needs to be developed can get us to the start of Beta, but after that, we know we need the input and participation of the community to make the game as good as we think it can be.

Being an Early Enrollee means you're not just a player - you're having a direct effect on prioritizing features and helping us determine how to implement features. The game will literally be built in part to your specifications.
We think that's an experience worth paying for, and it helps us make Pathfinder Online Bigger, Better and FASTER, and we think that's a fair trade.

The problem here being that a) I didn't pay for Gmail Beta, nor do I pay for Gmail now. b) being one of thousands of people is no different than sitting on forums for any MMO . . . for every idea you or I have, fifty other ideas exist to be considered . . . so it's not like paying for Beta gets us anything more than a small voice in a large (whatever they might like to say, thousands is thousands, and isn't much different from the engaged core of a AAA MMO) process. c) You STILL have to put up with the bugs of early access . . . it's not going to be a game that actually functions as it should . . . and for that you get to pay them. d) The people who directly benefit from PFO coming out sooner are the investors and Goblinworks . . . yet the players have to foot part of that bill, in excess of the cost of the game, a subscription, or even a small fee to secure early access . . . they profit all the way . . . fab work if you can get it, but a bad deal for the early access folks.

For those like me who have done a $175 if we just take a baseline of $15 a month (industry standard) and multiply it by two (number of people who get access with that pledge) for six months (the six of nine not free . . . and the early access period is not guaranteed to only last 9 months) you're looking at $180 extra . . . so more than the original pledge.

This is a problem when people start to drop out of the process, leaving holes not only in the "crowdforging" but also in the game itself. More players in an MMO is vital. Putting a barrier on playing beta (sub fee) means fewer players, means less success.

Like you all, I want this to work.

Unlike some of you I don;t see how charging your testers while they are helping you build and ensure a bug free release is productive.

Have you ever been able to keep your character from a Beta?

In a few of those MMOs there was no wipe, yeah.

PFO is "outside the box". It's not cookie-cutter. Judge it on its own merits, not compared to the other games you've played.

Thank you for the lecture. I could say something unflattering here, but I suspect if you read what you wrote and think about it you can probably come up with an idea of why what you posted is pretty, uh, rude.

That's simply wrong. As they've said quite clearly, they've secured funding to sustain their current burn rate indefinitely.

I'm sorry, but actually securing funding means that you don't pay for beta access in my world. Perhaps I am just simply too traditional for this "brave new world" of making games without any real backing. Something about not digging paying hundreds of dollars to enjoy BSODs, rollbacks, system changes, etc.

I get that you're in lust, but I'm obviously putting my money where my mouth is. I have backed the first one. I am currently backing at $175 on this one. I have as much right to point out problems with the process as you do.

My point is that this plan is very likely to work far worse than you, or Goblinworks seems to imagine. For YOU and for THEM maybe this is the holy grail. For the vast majority of people in the space, this is a single game that might be worth playing.

Start charging for Beta access and you may very well see a pretty high churn when those free months wear off.

If that's acceptable (and it should not be in my eyes) then they should go ahead. If that's seen as a problem (and it should be) there needs to be a different tact chosen.

My main issue with this (and what I have posted on the Kickstart project comments) is that we're being asked to not only fund well in advance (further in advance than most games) but that we're also being asked to pay a subscription fee during the Early Access or "Beta" period for all levels at $100 plus.

I've never paid for a Beta MMO. I've paid subs on some MMOs that SHOULD have still been in beta, yes. But actually being forced to pay in order to test is a problem for me.

I funded the tech demo generously. (Over $100? Can't remember off the top of my head.) I did so with the understanding that Goblinworks would ten secure funding.

At this point it is clear that they have not actually done so. If they had, we wouldn't be paying for Beta.

I strongly suggest that the policy on early access and subscriptions be changed. This is a very bad thing for the stability and health of the "early access" period that Ryan and co would like us to think is going to be so very successful. (How many people will quit over the fee when they're playing a buggy, beta test? How much input will be lost?)

The funding model here is wrong. Do it all from investors and kickstarting.

Anything else is double dipping. (Speaking from experience I can say that anyone who has ever worked on an MMO knows how valuable early testers are. You'd PAY THEM if you could.)