While running from Kindleburn to Rathglen on my first day, I passed by Thornkeep and was struck by the view. Thought I'd share.

Screenshot

And my new lock screen on my phone

Some of this may be old news to some, but I had a chance to learn some new things for me about Stealth recently and thought I'd share. At the last PvP event in Brighthaven, I was able to experience the wonders of -3000 rep, and the vigorous attention of multiple Thornguards, and how Stealth can be used to cool their ardor.

So during the event my rep plummetted to below -3000 and quickly drew the attention of all Thornguards in the surrounding area - sorry Cheatle, didn't mean to disrupt the pictures, was not intentional :) . Fortunately, early in the rez/gank cycle the guards excel at, I was able to strip my equipment off, so no big harm done. I believe it was about 6 deaths in that I managed to Stealth prior to dying. Stealth skill 95 at that point. Didn't break their targeting or attacks of course, and I died again. However, when I rezzed, I remained Stealthed and the Thornguards did not aggro. I got out of there as quick as my shaded little butt could manage. Later, I went back to do some testing, and made sure that my rep remained around the -3000 mark.

For the testing, I put my stealth up to 106 and went back to Brighthaven. Could Stealth to within about 12 feet of a Thornguard before he would target me and attack. Was able to travel throughout all areas of Brighthaven and even access the bank while Stealthed. Didn't think to try to craft anything. Could click on trainers without breaking Stealth though they wouldn't talk to me due to my rep. Humph! Snobs!

After aggroing the Thornguards, usually easy to Stealth and again rez in Stealth state without regaining aggro. If I dropped Stealth at the rez site in town, 7 Thornguards would immediately aggro and kill me.

To summarize, probably most important thing I learned is that the easiest way to break the rez/gank cycle is to use Stealth, as long as when you rez all guards have moved at least 12 feet away (with my Stealth skill - YMMV). Second main thing, those planning to play a spy/assassin with low rep will be viable at infiltrating enemy settlements to scout targets, but if they initiate an attack or break Stealth, they will die quickly.

Download was straightforward. Only about two and a half gigs. Game installed simply - click on .pkg, approve install, Pathfinder installed into Applications folder, nice icon by the way.

Game started up, windowed mode, logged in uneventfully. Looked beautiful. Essentially a flawless transition from the last time i logged in from my bootcamped version to what opened for me on the mac side. Don't know how much is from improvement with alpha 13, but feat icons were much clearer and looked better. The graphics as a whole looked better at Fast level then on the PC side. Changed to Fantastic, and thought PC side better at that level. Able to resize window multiple times, no freezes or crashes. The ?bloom? effect on armour that has plagued the last couple of PC versions was not present - I could see each individual scale on my scale armour. Had one crash during 2 hours of play last night. Grouped up with 4-5 others this afternoon and said the following about it in another thread:

"I was testing the Mac client. No issues with partying up. Crashed once while running to event. Crashed twice during the one and a half hours play. No real pattern. Never happened in combat, and didn't seem related to hex border crossing. No desync symptoms, just complete freeze. Able to Command-Option-Esc to Force Quit PFO, relaunch, back in with little down time. No durability loss, or death. Quite acceptable for the first release."

I'm using a Mac layout keyboard and no issues with default keybinding, same as PC client. Only 2 bugs i noted during play included the irregular baseline of text - starts flat and within second becomes irregular. Interestingly, I recall that happening in one of the early PC client alpha versions (6 or 7). Other bug was that I could not adjust sliders for volume, either ambient or music. May not have been specific to Mac client as one of the party members said was happening on PC as well.

I interacted with bank, crafters, trainers, without incident. Trading with other players had no issues. Moved multiple items into and out of bank repeatedly with no problems. Forgot to do any testing of auction house yet. Used hot keys and icons to open info windows for feats, paper doll, etc. No issues. Mouseover tooltips worked same as PC client. Unslotted items and feats, reslotted all with no problems. Combat was no different then PC. Lost combat animations only once briefly in hours of combat, which compares to my experience on PC side. Occasional mild stuttering crossing hexes which I don't see often anymore on the PC.

In short, this first release of Mac client well exceeded my expectations and surprisingly seems at par to the alpha 12 PC client (and may be at par to alpha 13, i just haven't bothered using the PC client since).

Good show GW, keep up the good work :D

Edit: System info: 27inch iMac, late 2012, 3.4GHz Intel Core i7, 24GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048MB, running OS X 10.9.5.

Posted to ideascale:

There are “achievement gates” that must be met in order to continue training feats within a role. My understanding of the design goals for this (which may be incomplete) include:
1. the desire to restrict the free spending of accumulated xp to “level” a character without playing the game and;
2. for these achievements to be achieved in the course of normal play so it does not feel to be a grind. “Normal play” and “grind” are subjective experiences that become counterproductive to argue over, in my opinion.

I propose a modification to the achievement gate to increase satisfaction within various play styles while meeting the design goals as I understand them. I propose that certain currently gated feat trees have a cooldown for training ranks. For each achievement gate, the developers assume a certain amount of time is needed in game to meet the requirements during the course of play. That would be the baseline cooldown. Time spent in game would cause the cooldown to proceed. Meeting the necessary achievement prior to the completion of the cooldown would cause it to reset immediately. This allows those whose “normal play” happens to be the activity that includes the achievement requirement the ability to train as originally envisioned, and allow others whose play style differs to still progress their training at a pace as anticipated by the developers.

My hope is that such a system would deflect criticism of intent and design regarding “grinds”, make progression of the game more forgiving towards a variety of play styles, and retain the original design intent of the developers. Share your thoughts below.

As Ryan mentions in today's blog, GW wants to trial this quickly when EE starts. Lets give them an idea how many of us are ready to stress the OS X client whenever they call on us.

I am :)

GW update reminded me I haven't activated the fulfillment system yet. My email addresses are different for the 2 accounts, and I either haven't received the code to link them, or perhaps it got filtered out from my inbox. Would it be better to change my Paizo account email address to be the same at this point, or leave the 2 addresses different and request the code? I will be changing the Paizo account email address within the next two months anyway. Thx!

Not exactly new news anymore but didn't see it mentioned anywhere else.

Link

Create a character on Velen Horde and you can check in with the Paizonians (unfortunately, I don't think you can join a guild with the free account).

Ok, got WoW for Christmas. Yes, I realize I'm years behind, but I don't think I've even played any video game in about 9 years (Hmm not sure if it was Thief or Neverwinter...), let alone an online game. So, what exactly am I in for? I'm assuming I should probably lay low, play solo for a while before I even try to interact with anyone, just to learn what the heck I'm doing. All I know so far is what can be gleaned by watching The Guild and that episode from South Park. Any advice?

Yay!

Finally! My local Chapters (Canadian Barnes & Nobles-type bookstore) has started stocking Planet Stories titles on the shelf. My town is not a big market, but the scifi/fantasy section is a reasonable size and we do have two universities nearby. I'd requested this in the past, but they "couldn't" do it. They would special order and early in the summer I noted they started carrying the Pathfinder RPG line.  So this weekend I was very happy to pick up The Walrus and the Warwolf there, and they also had 4 copies of Prince of Wolves, so I nabbed one of those. Did they finally get enough requests that they started listening? Did they bring them in on the "coat-tails" of Pathfinder Tales or the RPG? Or have all of the above have whoever does the ordering take more note of the range of Paizo's publishing efforts?

Regardless, its nice to see the Planet Stories (and now Pathfinder Tales) presence continues to expand into the mainstream market, especially in smaller cities.

Just got an iPhone after using a Blackberry for years and am a bit overwhelmed by the App Store. I'd love some suggestions of good apps I should take a look at. In particular, looking for a task manager, pdf-viewer, mileage tracker, and anything else you consider a "must get".

Thanks!

Hi guys

I just ordered a Chronicles subscription. While playing around with the shipping options, I "lost" Dungeon Denizens into an immediate separate shipment. Can it be held to ship with my July shipment?

Thanks

I've been learning d20 Modern and more specifically d20 Future in the hopes of getting a campaign going. Came across a recent article that ties neatly into the framework provided in Chapter 4: Environment from the d20 Future hardcover. So for those who are interested:

linky

The pdf version looks better; link off to right side of html version.

A future article will look at the physiologic effects of space flight. If there is interest, I will post when it becomes available.

Wow. I just received order 1128129 and I have got to say I am amazed by how you could fit all those different sized items into the flat rate box. Seriously, well done.

One little snafu. Among the Planet Stories books, "Death In Delhi" was packed instead of "The Dark World". That's actually fine with me - it completes my Gygax collection and I intended to order it at some point. I'm quite happy to accept it in place of Dark World which I'll pick up another time in the future. I wasn't going to bother to tell you, but not sure if it makes a difference in tracking your stock.

Anyone?...

Anyone?...

Bueller?...

Not talking about the excellent Golarion calender courtesy of Lilith and fray. I was out Xmas shopping, stopped by one of those kiosks that show up this time of year covered with calenders. Saw Star Trek 2009, SI 2009 (whew!), fluffy bunnies 2009 etc. But no Pathfinder 2009. How am I going to keep track of my game nights and the dates for the next Paizo Con, or Erik Mona Day?

Seriously, think about doing a calender with some of the great artwork you've been publishing, maybe add a few quotes from the adventure paths or blurbs like from the Campaign Setting. I'd buy one.

I would like to see an option to allow a ranger to "reset" his favored enemy. Too often if a campaign takes a left turn the ranger can get stuck with a bonus against creatures he's not gonna see. Perhaps we could follow the example of the sorcerer who has the opportunity at certain times to trade out lower spells; or, it could be an "anytime" function that simply requires the proper in-game amount of time and gold to gain the knowledge necessary to justify the bonus. Granted, it loses a bit of flavor ("Dragons destroyed my village! Ate my mentor! Violated my dog! Now I show them no mercy!... what we're going up against giants? Uh, I forgive the dragons, but oooh those darn giants make me so mad!!). But I think the benefit for the ability to still be relevant when the game has moved on outweighs the loss of "motivation".

Did a quick check to see if this topic already covered, given that its probably a pretty common houserule, but didn't see it anywhere. If topic already discussed, my apologies, and please link to thread

Yesterday for the first time, I received advertising for a Pathfinder product from someone other than Paizo. Amazon sent me an email ad for Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Monsters Revisited. The only ads I've ever received from them previously have been for work-related texts or WOTC products. I've never bought a Pathfinder product through Amazon (always get mine direct from Paizo). I figure either Joshua Frost has gone ninja and infiltrated Amazon for free marketing or Pathfinder products have reached a level of market penetration that Amazon thinks it worthwhile to hawk it to purchasers of role-playing products in general.

Anyway, just thought that was interesting.

So I want to make up an NPC for my group to interact with in a (hopefully) non-adversarial way, and I want him to represent a fairly high-placed, successful general. Someone who is a wiley, grizzled veteran, politically savvy, knows strategy and tactics, and is respected and feared by peers and adversaries alike. Aiming for a total character level 8-10. I really feel he needs to be predominantly a fighter, but needs more knowledge skill ranks.

I'm thinking of going with fighter/expert or fighter/aristocrat to buff up on skill points with emphasis on Knowledge (history), Knowledge (nobility and royalty), and Knowledge (geography). Any opinions on proper mix of classes/skills for a good General?

I've got "Slice of Death", which has kept me from total withdrawal, but its not the same. I miss the monthly antics!!

Tony Moseley's Zogonia site has been blank for some time. Anyone from Paizo heard from him since Dragon went bye-bye? Any chance of him and Paizo teaming up for a sequel to "Slice of Death"? Domato's Delvers wouldn't give up without Kev stabbin' something....

Did something change this weekend with the fonts on the website? Lately my kids have been playing with the computer, and who knows what they might have done, but to me, the messageboards look "crisper".

Shipment arrived yesterday. Unfortunately, no D0 Hollow's Last Hope in the box, even though it was listed on the "in this package". Other items all accounted for. I know these things happen, no big deal. The part that bugs me is paying the customs fee for something i didn't receive. Come to think of it, its the first time i've had to pay a customs charge for an order even though your Custom Declaration note was filled out as it usually is.

When you send D0, up to you if it is seperate or included with one of my subscription sets.