Dorgan Berkham's page

<Kabal> Daeglin wrote:

I think there are a lot more fun people to meet and play with, either as friends or enemies. You may not understand why I am happy with the game so far. I can't understand how you're not.

I actually understand completely. It's how I felt about my Freelancer Server. My Freelancer server was capped at 50 people with no plans to ever become much larger.

I hope you realize this game's plan is to expand, and if it succeeds in that venture, the tiny little group of people that comprise PFO's current community will ultimately be of no meaning. It's going to attract an Open World PvP crowd. A crowd that has quite literally accused me of being a carebear and had a lot of people even in my own group telling me I was too nice and didn't have enough bloodthirst.

Good luck with that.

So are you telling him the reason why his reasons are not valid is that the game might succeed, all in a thread questioning the very possibility of the game succeeding?

1) "Your character's as strong as the community behind it."

Close up to Character vs 1 enemy, zoom out to reveal character as part of a chain of characters vs the same enemy.

2) "Your Voice (may) shape(s) the world".
Character expressing idea as a symbol (for instance a Basecamp) on a cloud like a Comic book. Symbol on the cloud translates to image on the game of the same idea. (Could be mountains, or forests, or a settlement as symbols as well).

Holy smokes, that was informative! Thank you Ryan!

Hey Guys,

I know I might get reprimanded for defending the game, but still I feel I must. I cannot speak to the design or programing aspects, in a team you play your role to the best of your abilities. I can speak about the graphics. There are very cool things in the pipe I cannot talk about. Cool Stuff. Any who about the graphics. I have worked the past 10 years, this month being my anniversary in the game industry after studying game art for 4 years. I have worked on small to the biggest games to date, so I know what both sides of the spectrum are like. I have worked on psp, ps2, ps3, and now Ps4 games. Also the same generation xbox ones and pc. We are doing very exciting things graphics wise. I know what the tech was like in 04. trust me, i pushed for our company at the time to go into ps3 development in 06. This meant normal maps. This was in 06. For a small company I helped pioneer one of the first games that hit the ps3. note I said normal maps, true RGB maps that make the light calculate as its a higher resolution model. For a small company at the time I was like, damn we are so behind whats out there. what I would come to learn to realize is that small companies, can actually push the envelope in greater ways than a 200m game can because there is less politics and middle management. I wont mention names, but one of the biggest budget games an all time classic that came out in 08 I believe did not use this tech they were far behind the curve, it was a hundred million dollar game. in fact the small company i made the push at was ahead of them. Soooo on pathfinder online we are using the highest poly characters we can knowing there will be hundreds on screen. they use true normal maps. they also do all the color tinting stuff that is also somewhat recent. I don't know the exact date but every time I hear, game looks anything less than 08, I chuckle. Because what you are thinking of is fond memories of those games. But feel what you want. As I mentioned cool stuff is in the pipe, and we can hit...

Thank you for this information, Esequiel. I may not post much, but know that I'm behind this game and its team. I will wait what is necessary for this game to shine.

This is meant to be a single player game. The challenges involving an MMO are quite different. It looks like a nice game, but the comparison to PFO is inadequate.

I'd just like to pipe in and say something. I've been in the game industry for around 16 years now. I've seen a lot of companies come and go, and worked for like 8 I think. In all that time, I haven't seen, or heard of, a game company as dedicated to making a game with a focus on building a true community (with the possible exception of Cyan, who I loved working for as a result). I've worked for good companies, and worked with people who cared about the games, but never for a company whose focus is so clearly on the quality of the game features and experience, or which has such a connection to the community and interest in making them (you) happy.

We are a TINY company for the scale of game we are trying to make. Our budget is a pittance compared to other games of this scale and complexity, even though it may seem like a lot of money. We are infinitely grateful for the money each of you has spent and your support, and doing everything we can to eek every iota out of that funding (as I sit here on hour 80 or so of working this week). All of that is so we can be sustainable and make this work for Pathfinder fans and a relatively focused online game community that we see as 'where it's at'.

Yes, I realize that none of you know me really, and that I work for Goblinworks, but seeing comments suggesting this team is trying to milk people for money hits a bit hard considering the reality I experience daily. I hope you will take it to heart that we are doing everything we can to make a company and game that can live on for many years and be a living and vibrant community. As part of that, we will do everything humanly possible to make sure the experience is balanced and not 'pay to win', because we believe that has a huge bearing on building on the quality of the community, and that is utterly key to us. However, as with any business, revenue is life blood, and gives us the ability to keep growing and building the world and features for all of you.

Thank you all for the support and input. Sorry I don't...

The amount of unforeseeables in a software project of this magnitude must be extreme. Software projects at the very least have to account for 50% more development time than originally planned as a rule. To be able to stick to your plan, on the amount of resources you have is admirable (great planning + long hours is probably the answer) considering you have a community that is constantly trying to change whatever it is you had planned to do (which of course sometimes it is for the better).

I'd ask people to have a little more respect for GW's capabilities. It's obvious to them that it is in their best interest not to make a Pay-to-Win game. The only people who like those, are usually those with enough money to spend. Those are relatively few. Ergo, you end up with a game with few players. No one wants to play a game with no players. I would think they have already thought this a long time ago.

GW needs to create a solid community and they are not going to jeopardize that by introducing obvious distortions to the game that are going to alienate that very thing they are trying to create.

So, core message is good work GW and I know you are smart enough to create a balanced game!

Perhaps, they could be balanced in the sense that should they be killed, they stay that way. Makes it a much more meaningful choice that way.

Talk about resurrecting old threads...

I'm curious if Goblinworks has ever really considered the ability to drop things on the ground, or not.

It's been 1.5 years since this post started and stopped, and we are now much closer to a minimum viable product. Do we know if the game's technology/platform will allow for such a thing? If it does, are there any considerations to implement such a thing?

Take a look at this thread, there are a couple of GW responses.

Yes I do that too, but it would be nicer to have it all in one button.

What is the Betrayal Flag?

There should be certain covenants that one can define with other players with certain conditions ("We will not kill each other, we will not steal from each other, we will divide our loot according to certain rules", etc.). Some of these conditions may be enforced through game mechanics (for example loot division), others through social coercion. The idea is: break the covenant and you become a Betrayer/Traitor, etc.

Of course, these covenants may be explicit or implicit. Should you group up with a fellow player and you get killed by him, there is an implicit covenant that has been breached and it gets you branded a traitor/criminal/etc.

Who can issue it?

I would think, a priori, that it is not issued by players against other players, but rather it is defined by the system automatically.

At what cost is it issued?

These covenants should have some kind of collateral (money, armor, etc.) to be enforced and require both parties to agree to dissolve it (unless it dissolves after a certain time specified in the contract).

What offenses should earn it?

Death/Robbery/Looting by teammate, companymate against teammate/companymate/company assets.

What proof of betrayal is required?

I would assume the breaching of the covenant is registered automatically by the game, and requires no player input.

What should the consequences of it be?

As Betrayal is beyond the scope of law and is more of a personal issue, I would think that what it entails is that Betrayers may be subject by those who have been betrayed of certain actions that usually entail reputation hits, at a reduced cost, solely against the betrayer and no one else. The idea behind this is: the Law provides for certain conditions that diminish your degree of guilt in the eyes of the judge(like passion crimes).

I'd rather DM intervention presented us with situations that create interesting interactions between us, rather than to somehow "guide" the game to an undefined "optimum". I'll take earthquakes, plagues and invasions just fine as long as they are not used to "regulate" the game.

Hello,

I was thinking what kind of natural hazards we will encounter in PFO.

A brief list of possible ones:

- Extreme Heat and Cold
- High Altitude
- (Sand)Storms and Tornados
- Avalanches
- Chasms
- Quicksand

Which do you think are more viable/interesting? Should they be included?

How can they impact the world and mechanics?

Extreme cold, high altitude and storms I'd love to see at least.

What do you think?