Eldurian Darkrender's page

If one believes the universe is inherently just, governed by some being or force that balances the equations for us, then it's easy to assume the unfortunate deserve their misfortune. Next thing, you might find yourself agreeing with Pat Robertson in blaming natural disasters on people powerless to cause or divert them, just as economic disasters are being blamed on those with the least power to influence the situation.

I hate to bring religion into this but your slander of Christianity is so far off base something needed to be said.

There is an entire book of the Bible in which one of the main ideas taught is that calamities that befall you do not indicate God's displeasure. It's called Job. The basic summary is that there was a very righteous and faithful man named Job. Satan claimed that Job only loved God because God had blessed him. God then allowed Satan to inflict misery and suffering on Job. A lot of it. Job remained faithful and in the end was blessed.

During the book of Job his friends do the same thing Pat Roberson did and blame him. They aren't portrayed positively.

Im going to go out on a limb here and say that most Christians take the word of the Bible over Pat Robertson. Lets not pretend that just because the biggest idiot in a group says something that everyone agrees with them.

1. A very basic combat system, that is simple / fun.
2. A very basic crafting / economy system we can use to outfit ourselves with basic gear.
3. Enough skills to train to keep us occupied until more are released.
4. Some very basic PVE content.
5. Some very basic motivations to PVP.

I don't like the idea of tiers of resources. Like in your example. Which is better, bear or rabbit fur?

Well if I'm making a pair of gloves and I want my hands to still be nimble/comfortable, then I want rabbit fur gloves.

If I'm making a coat that I want to be warm and to offer protection, bear would be much better.

Don't separate items as inferior/superior. Just make them different.

In my view pacifism is an internal belief system, it can not be forced upon another. I intend to play a pacifist Monk type character, of LG (core alignment) and likely a LN to NG (active alingment).

My pacifism is internal, I will follow it as often as possible. If the are skills that makes me more difficult to hit or if I can train skills that will hinder my opponent's attacks, I will. In Pathfinder RPG, the Flowing Monk would have represented by preferred character clas the best. If the are skills that I can train, that turns my opponents attacks back at himself, then those would b the only offensive capabilities that I would use on a regular basis.

Hopefully with my evasion skills, defensive skills and abilities to turn attack back at my opponents, they would stop their attack. If on the other hand, if I fall to their attacks, at least I hleld true to my pacifist beliefs.

I think the the problem here is a disconnect between metagame and in-character perspective.

Anyone saying this system "forces" people toward pacifism is viewing it from a metagame perspective.

From an in-character perspective they are being calmed and persuaded. This isn't compulsion, this is your character persuading them to stop attacking you. As they begin to question their actions they become less effective at combat. Damage breaks them out of it because it's hard to stay in a peaceful state of mind while you are getting sliced open.

It is completely within the realm of pacifists to convince other people to give up violence. Why would someone give up violence themselves if they don't feel those values are worth preaching?

@Raoni Luna

I am glad that someone told you something about PFO that gave you hope and, perhaps, the willingness to try the game.

I hope to see you post more on other topics about the features of the game as we discuss them herein.

Not to be contentious, but I hope that you asked Eldurian before posting his PM to you. It seems to me to be in bad form to put in public what is a personal message. The message itself is not very personal but it could be considered rude. This is not a "sacred rule" or anything but I just thought that you might like to know that at least 1 person here is shocked to see a PM posted so casually here.

That said, Welcome. :)

No they didn't but I'm not really concerned. Persuaded someone to try PFO by giving them a good answer to their question.

Certainly not upset to see that made public, and I'm glad to hear my answer helped.

My guess is that some of these "good" kingdoms won't be so good once they have secured their power. Likely a kingdom will openly declare itself as good while building power and once they have a strong position will have the big "You know, we changed our minds about being good..." moment.

I believe BoB called themselves as good, but in reality their only objective was expanding their own power. And of course Goon Swarm were the good guys who freed EVE from the tyranny of BoB. Just like those nice Terran Dominion chaps liberated the people of The Confederacy.

If MMO history teaches anything it's that the alignment people declare themselves to follow means nothing.

I think the best deal for monk is just include unarmed combat from the start with some skills for it.

For now, they can make it an uninspired tavern brawling sort of unarmed combat with punches and kicks. I mean really. All they need to animate is one punch, and one kick.

Once monks are ready they can make into crazy kung-fu. As long as the skills are in place it doesn't matter much.

And they kind of need those animations anyway, unless they want to have it so we can't throw a punch if we get caught without a weapon.

@ Leperkhaun

Because this isn't WoW, you don't get levels in a class. Your levels in rogue and fighter can't be just pulled out and switched to ranger.

Your character is built of a wide array of many skills. A great deal of which are non class specific but may work toward certain classes and not others such as power attack and heavy armor.

The only viable way to do a respec is to refund all your skill points in every skill and let you start from scratch.

This gives a huge advantage to whoever they allow to do it because it lets them create a more streamlined character based on what they know does and doesn't work. If you dropped points into perception and realize you don't like it, you are now free to reinvest those points.

It's such a huge advantage if they do it for anyone they need to do it for everyone. This means a free respec every single time a new class is released. Or perhaps just a free respec once per character?

I personally say... no. No respecs for anyone ever. People can handle being marginally weaker than a tiny segment of the population.

Monks aren't Asian!!! Almost every culture has monks. They all sit in there little monasteries, praying, fasting, and practicing kung-fu. Sometimes they have epic kung-fu battles with the nuns. Come on man, everybody knows this!

Eldurian's Non-Wall of Text on Why Respecs Are a Bad Idea

(See, I broke it down into nice little easy to read points!)

THE FLAVOR OF THE MONTH (Nerf peanutbutter! It's too tasty!!!)

This is an issue we won't have to worry about that much in PFO, because of the time it takes to train our characters and the lack of respecs. Add respecs and people will all respec into the build that is currently most powerful, and then cry and quit the game when it gets nerfed.

PLEASE SIR, CAN I HAVE SOME MORE? (No soup for you!)

Ok so one respec doesn't mean that you'll be respeccing all the time to the point you'll change your build more frequently than your undergarments. But the problem is it will create an expectation.

Sorcerers are released? I want a respec! Rangers are releases? I want a respec! Oracles are released? I want a respec! Bloat mages are released? I want a respec! Magic missile gets nerfed? I want a respec! Ryan shaves his beard of justice? I want a respec! Neville Longbottom wins 10 points for Gryffindor? I want a respec!

Pretty soon people will expect respecs after every game changing (or not so game changing) release.

YOU WILL SURVIVE (For as long as you've got love to give you know you're still alive!)

As a EE enrollee you are getting a head start on the rest of the community. Ok so some dude who never wanted to be anything but a sword wielding fighter may start getting class skills before you. That may seem like a big deal now but when you are ahead of 90%+ of the community simply by having been in EE you will forget you ever cared.

No skills you take will ever hurt you because there is no cap on training. And as Lee stated, most skills aren't class specific. Some day you will look back on this discussion and laugh. If you even remember it.

Oculus+omni

Wow that looks awesome! But I'm just going to throw out there that your average gamer would keel over and die partway through your average gaming session.

Wouldn't that be awesome if we all had to use them?

"Charge!!!"

"Hold on I need to catch my breath!"

"Dammit have you been eating cheeseburgers and Mountain Dew again?!"

"Yeah but...."

"You're out of this guild! You make me sick!!! You're supposed to be keeping up a rigid exercise routine and diet. We're gamers dammit!!! We'll never make it onto the Halo 6 Olympic team at this rate!!!"

It's been a long time, and you've been very patient as a community all things considered. I can sense, the irritation, the anticipation, and perhaps even a bit of stress and flared tempers as you wait for that golden moment.

I am here to tell you, you can finally rejoice that the wait is over. That's right! Eldurian Darkrender is here!

Say hello to the slyest, most charming, and most incredibly humble addition to this little community. You can stop crying into your ales and raise a pint, because it my friends, is time to GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!!

The system won't be called goblin balls.

I'm wavering between relief and disappointment.

Seriously? Don't these politicians have better things to do with their lives than worry about people dicing for coppers in online games???

Anyway with that noted we should at least pursue games such as chess and some card games where you don't make wagers.

I've always thought that MMO's require enough time investment that they need to offer an extremely wide array of activities. People like to change up their gaming routine and if they can't find anything interesting to do in their current game they will find another one. But with the time investment MMO's requires finding another game means building new characters, economic resources, and connections.

Therefore a game that offers a lot of variety in activities is quite appealing. It means you can enjoy a lot of varied activities without switching games.

Unfortunately most MMO's just offer crafting and combat.

I think one great addition to PFO would be card / board / dice games in taverns. If patrons could walk in and have options to play games similar to chess and checkers or fable some coins on dice and card games similar to blackjack etc.

Playing Tavern Games On Mobile Devices

So we know there will be safe-zones and that the taverns purchased through the kickstarter will be included in them.

I suggest making it so that you can log on to a mobile app that will allow you to play tavern games in safe-zone PFO taverns with one of your offline characters. Mobile players would see a list of the tables at the tavern and could join a table with open seats or create a new game at an empty table. PFO players would actually see avatars seated around tables and could walk over and sit down to join or create a game the same way.

At that point both players could view and play the game which would only show what is happening on the table.

Many iPhone games are programmed in Unity so I'm sure this can be done.

Tavern Game Rewards

Tavern games should give some form of reward. Be it achievements, earning trophies and other items, or subtly skewing the odds so it actually EARNs you money unlike real life.

But a reward that makes people feel like they are continuing to advance their PFO career while playing chess in the doctor's office before their appointment or whatever. This will have two great benefits.

1. It will make people feel more invested in the PFO community by giving them access to it anywhere their phone gets reception.
2. It will ensure there are always opponents for PFO players wanting to find tavern games.