If I have the sequence correct, UNC was once allied with Pax to the point their counts were combined on the original Land Rush thread. Now they're either more loosely aligned, or not aligned at all, but the UNC votes still counted to give Pax the second choice in today's announced sites.
I find myself wondering whether it'll be any more difficult for TEO, Pax, and T7V to recruit now that we have our sites. It seems there's room for other groups to look for interesting incentives to offer to boost their own group-sizes at the expense of those now "settled".
You're exploring the borders of the arbitrary-and-capricious GMing we'll have. I, for one, choose to trust that GW will recognise their incentives to very carefully watch their community...and to listen to us.
One polite person may not be enough to offset other voices, activity logs, personal observation by a GM...
Nightdrifter, I love your numbers as always, but in this case, given Lee's comments that they're going to adjust movement times based on fun and not necessarily reality, we may be a bit pre-mature in working the math right now.
If someone can't handle playing a game with Open PvP then coloring their name for a bit won't change that.
That seems to imply that liking or not liking Open PvP is an inherent, and not a learned, characteristic. It feels as if some temporary "protection" could aid people in discovering whether it's an acquired taste for them, possibly mitigating a knee-jerk reaction.
You wouldn't leave your char on autopilot just anywhere...
From the stories I hear about Hulkageddon and other suicide ganking in EVE, it seems there's no such thing as safety anywhere humans are involved. If certain EVE players could figure out where you live in real life, I'm sure there'd be reports of home invasion murders, too.
I'm so glad that Shane Gifford's been transcribing the vlogs, because without his contribution, an increasing number of Summon Nihimon spells would fail. I, for one, read so much faster than people talk that I'm in favour of updates going all-written-all-the-time, but I suspect I'm in a minority.
...you would have hired enough guards to protect your cargo.
Where, in any game, will a character have enough money to pay a sufficiently-large group of human players to protect him? It's hard enough, in the real world, to find people willing to deal competently with the "hours of boredom, moments of sheer terror" involved in guard-work; in a game, who wants to spend the time he paid for in pursuits like that?
I've spent the last few weeks at my real work arguing the benefits of considering sunk costs to be just that: sunk, and not worth following on with further expenditure. Bluddwolf, you're dangerously close to succeeding in convincing me to write off the few hundreds of dollars I've spent on PFO as a poor investment, not worth pursuing further.
The game you write about seems bleak beyond all hope of joy.
...in all of the "Drow" fiction that I have read, they seem able and willing to cooperate when there is need and it is in their best interests.
Please also remember that the Drow in fiction are exactly that: in fiction. They need to be shown a certain way in the tale to advance the purposes of the storyteller, and there aren't any real human beings controlling each one of them, as there will, of necessity, be here.
Writing about Chaotic Evil societies while recognising all the limitations and logical conclusions about such societies would likely not lead to publication, as entertainment value might end up being minimal:
I've lived in cities my whole life, and I noticed in high school I was already doing that. I've never thought of things in terms of distance-from-me, but only as time-from-me.
Rush hour, road construction, a stop along the way...all those my brain just sort of deals with somehow, but as-the-crow-flies, or other distances? Not a clue.
If we're going to go all pre-industrial with our measurements, why not just let things go the way they used to...each polity assigns its own weights and measures, complete with fines and other punishments for being caught using someone's else's system inside the wrong territory?
Meaningful human interaction could begin with each merchant or crafter conversation settling how they were going to understand one another.
I'm positive that Ryan would have explained in much more depth had he been given the chance.
Watched it twice to be sure, and I think he went for a nice pun--that many in the audience seemed not to plumb--as his deliberately complete contribution.
Rushed for time, so no quote, but haven't we heard that corpses will remain for a time allowing one to try to return to one's own corpse to get whatever wasn't looted or destroyed?
...a death means you probably lost all your non-threaded stuff anyway...
It's been a while, but there was once a thread with many folks saying they planned to equip only the most-useless 2-copper junk other than their threaded items. It'll be interesting to watch developments to see how well that strategy can hold out.
Having never had perceptible hand/eye coordination, I dread the entrance of twitch. I'm one of those people who can't watch the fight, because I have to make sure I'm watching my UI at the edge of the screen, ensuring I use only the ability I intend, and not the one next to it.
He had trillions in his wallet just by playing the market.
Sounds like my brother's experience. I just wanted to fly, appreciate the pretty art, and plan out my character's development, while he jumped right into the market-game.
In about 60 days, he'd said he'd "figured out the system", and began making money so fast that boredom set in pretty quickly; he couldn't find anything he was interested in spending his money on, so it just kept multiplying itself.
You begin with a simple set of rules that must be obeyed, which include prohibitions against using the names from popular copyrighted works. Other obvious restrictions are on names intentionally designed to be harassing or insensitive.
But the meta rule is "you can't use any name we don't like, and we can't tell you in advance if we like a name or not."
People with "name review credentials" (whomever those people may be) are empowered to flag any name they think is problematic. This function could be something that is awarded to particularly helpful volunteers. Flagging the name has no effect - the player of the character should be told they've been flagged, but not by whom, and there's no action to be taken until the process has concluded. Asking for an advance decision or trying to go around the system will be prejudicial to the case.
People with "name enforcement credentials" (whomever those people may be, very unlikely to include anyone not on the payroll) periodically review all the names currently flagged. They decide (using whatever criteria are established, some of which may include subjective opinion, and with the ability to bandy the debate around in an internal discussion for marginal cases that deserve it) if the name should be changed or not. If it is deemed necessary to change the name, the name is switched to something meaningless but obviously not a "real name". Such as "Name_Must_Be_Changed_217". A character with such a name will be required to change it before the character can log in again.
If the player involved thinks the change was unwarranted, they can make a single appeal, in writing, which will be reviewed by the supervisory authority of whomever did the name change in the first place, and the decision of that review is final.
A player who consistently generates names that are reviewed and found to be a problem will simply be banned - it will be cheaper to fire the customer than to try and fix the customer.
Ryan Dancey wrote:
When we begin Early Enrollment the naming conventions are going to be the equivalent of the Wild West.
You should assume that any name you choose is provisional, subject to change, and remains active only at our discretion.
The rampant abuse of the name system I expect will be massive, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to devote a lot of resources to a more reflective and discriminatory naming review process in Early Enrollment compared to the other tasks on the priority list.
So expect that whatever name you choose is likely to get changed at some point and then you won't be disappointed if and when that happens.
Nihimon asked whether there'd be early name registration:
Ryan Dancey wrote:
@Nihimon - we're talking about ways to do that which don't lead to name brokering.
Ryan Dancey wrote:
Names will have a real-world value (someone will snag a desirable name and then seek to sell the account that name is on; we can't stop it). Because of that we have to be careful to not let someone or some group namefarm the game. That means we have to have some systems in place to control the rate and proliferation of names before we start letting people claim them.
They will methodically use the system, within its parameters to pursue their objective of dominance.
I look forward to hearing from the folks who're attempting methodically to use the system within its parameters, only to discover they don't fully understand those parameters, or they lack patience, or any of the other myriad things that may cause whining and moaning in the search for short-cuts, instant or near-instant success, or what they hope will be exploitable advantages somehow denied to their "victims". Those sounds will be joyful to my ears, and I expect the number of failures may asymptotically approach the number of attempts.
Don't forget Crowdforging (the concept) FTW, too. Impressive to balance so many moving pieces, keeping the thread on-topic (mostly), civil (mostly), and productive (Stephen's post #1200 gives pretty solid evidence).
Congratulations again, to all participants and contributors.
Congratulations, folks, this's now solidly the third-most-posted thread. I honestly can't figure out whether we've learned much or settled anything, and I'm not entirely certain we've advanced the discussion; I can no longer tell what it'd take to accomplish that.
I'll not be the least surprised if most Companies have such a "designated SADer", or whatever other similar function proves the most useful. Some of our Crowdforging may be to see what ways there are to prevent such, or channel in into "appropriate" uses.
To have multiple characters, presumably on-par experience-wise, one simply pays multiple fees for their training time, or evenly splits whatever training time one pays for. Each character needs to earn the badges and achievements needed to advance what that character wants, while spending the XP earned by that character's fees.
I'm not sure many folks here are yet thinking about PFO not being Skyrim, when we're interested in getting in-game and exploring what we're going to help build. I'm already trying to figure out what time I can give my Twin, for example, given that I'll find it hard to put away my main when he can do anything and everything he wants.
I guess what I'm asking is how exactly experience is gained and spent.
Mu understanding is that XP are gained simply by time's passage, and one spends them only when one chooses. Unless there's a cap on XP storage, I expect one could hold onto a big slug until the right time.
Do we have indication from GW that one will be Evil and the other not? It feels as if we're in "quack like a duck" territory, at least for Reputation; the Gods may have their own ideas on Alignment effects.
But Cryptic is the pioneer of the @handle system to allow everyone to play Superman, if they choose. I'm surprised they don't use this key feature of their innovation.
If Friend X makes a new thief character then I want to know my friend is online...
But the corollary to that is that there may not be a way for your friend to be on-line and NOT have you know about it. There are times when one wants some privacy, and one also doesn't want to risk hurt feelings by telling others that.
Well fireballs hit your own I should thing AoE heals would behave similarly.
Nihimon may know where the reference is, as it's escaping me, but I thought we'd heard that AOE healing was indeed going to be a direct corollary to AOE damage...affects everyone/everything.
I thought what would confuse new players was the more-complicated system we'd all come up with to avoid carrying liquid assets from place to place. Given that there's no chance we'd not do that if coin were material, having coin be non-material appears, to me, the simplest solution, and easiest to explain and understand.
...the skill trees for the OE released characters may not match skills and feats trained for in EE...
But, I believe, there'll be nothing restricting you from learning whatever you need to learn to set yourself up in your new role. I've heard nothing that says something like "once you learn to use a sword, you can't learn to use a spell".
On the contrary, we've got, just from yesterday (in the Thunderstrike thread), Nightdrifter pointing out that you can learn both Priest and Mage spells, and Ryan agreeing in boldface. One may not be able to effectively prep *perfectly* for something not yet released, but, as someone pointed out many threads ago, you can train "increased hit points" before, say, Druids are out, without hurting yourself in any possible way.
We need a wiki. I mean, we have a fantastic live wiki called Nihimon but I feel burdened by always having to look his way for clarification, details and links to the correct blog. :(
Here's the link to Harad's astounding work on the map as we've learned it so far. You'll see the starting EE area has no rivers, so we won't have to be concerned Day One.
Is there no Destiny's Twin option or Twice Marked?
The former, in particular, has been held out from the beginning as a Kickstarter-Backer-only reward; I can't remember off-hand whether the second's been in that category as well.
Full Name
Jessamy Pierce
Race
HP 93/93, AC 26/17/26, F +6, R +13 (+3 vs. traps), W +5, Init +9, Per +15
Classes/Levels
Feral Rogue 12
Size
M
Age
16
Alignment
CG
Location
Sandpoint
Languages
Common, Giant, Varisian, Shoanti, Thassilonian
Strength
12
Dexterity
20
Constitution
15
Intelligence
14
Wisdom
10
Charisma
14
About Jessamy Pierce
[dice=Perception (+3 vs. traps)]1d20+15[/dice]
[ spoiler=Status]
HP 93/93
AC 26, touch 17, flat-footed 26
Fort +6, Ref +13 (+3 vs. traps), Will +5
CMD 20
Touch of good: 0/5; Hunter's Howl: 0/3
Effects:
[/spoiler]
Trapfinding: A rogue adds 1/2 her level to Perception skill checks made to locate traps and to Disable Device skill checks (minimum +1). A rogue can use Disable Device to disarm magic traps.
Evasion: If a rogue makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the rogue is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless rogue does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Trap sense: +4 AC and Reflex saves vs. traps
Uncanny Dodge: Retain Dex bonus to AC when flat-footed.
Improved Uncanny Dodge: A rogue of 8th level or higher can no longer be flanked.
Combat Precision: +1 on weapon damage rolls per die of sneak attack. This bonus applies at all times.
Rogue Talents: Combat training: Weapon Finesse
Combat training: Weapon Focus
Combat trick: Combat Reflexes
Minor divine magic (Good domain): +4 to rolls for 1 round, 5/day
Touch of Good (Sp) - You can touch a creature as a standard action, granting a sacred bonus on attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and saving throws equal to half your cleric level (minimum 1) for 1 round. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Crippling Strike* (Ex): A rogue with this ability can sneak attack opponents with such precision that her blows weaken and hamper them. An opponent damaged by one of her sneak attacks also takes 2 points of Strength damage.
Opportunist (Ex): Once per round, the rogue can make an attack of opportunity against an opponent who has just been struck for damage in melee by another character. This attack counts as an attack of opportunity for that round. Even a rogue with the Combat Reflexes feat can't use the opportunist ability more than once per round.
Others to consider: Assault leader, minor magic, powerful sneak, resiliency, improved resiliency).
Hunter's Howl: Cast hunter's howl 3/day as a swift action. (Worth 3,000 gp)
Feats:
Two-weapon Fighting: Your penalties on attack rolls for fighting with two weapons are reduced. The penalty for your primary hand lessens by 2 and the one for your off hand lessens by 6. See Two-Weapon Fighting in Combat.
Improved Initiative: +4 Initiative
Dodge: +1 AC
Weapon Finesse* Weapon Focus*: Short sword
Quick Draw Combat reflexes*: You may make a number of additional attacks of opportunity per round equal to your Dexterity bonus. With this feat, you may also make attacks of opportunity while flat-footed.
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting: In addition to the standard single extra attack you get with an off-hand weapon, you get a second attack with it, albeit at a –5 penalty.
Combat Expertise: -3 to hit for +3 AC
Outflank (bonus teamwork feat with Pirknok): Whenever you and an ally who also has this feat are flanking the same creature, your flanking bonus on attack rolls increases to +4. In addition, whenever you score a critical hit against the flanked creature, it provokes an attack of opportunity from your ally.
Gang Up (from Book of War): You are considered to be flanking an opponent if at least two of your allies are threatening that opponent, regardless of your actual positioning.
Extra Rogue Talent: Opportunist (Ex): Once per round, the rogue can make an attack of opportunity against an opponent who has just been struck for damage in melee by another character. This attack counts as an attack of opportunity for that round. Even a rogue with the Combat Reflexes feat can't use the opportunist ability more than once per round.
Eternally Optimistic: +1 trait bonus to Will saves.
Monster Hunter: +1/+1 vs. aberrations and magical beasts.
Racial traits:
+2 to One Ability Score: Applied to Dexterity.
Bonus Feat: Humans select one extra feat at 1st level.
Skilled: Humans gain an additional skill rank at first level and one additional rank whenever they gain a level.
Languages: Humans begin play speaking Common.
Background:
Once upon a time, there was a family of wealthy nobles living in splendor in Korvosa. Adamar and Saria Voulge had everything their daughter could possibly want growing up -- money to buy beautiful dresses and jewelry; tutors to teach lessons, magic and swordplay; guards to keep her safe; and of course servants to cook meals and clean food. As a result, their daughter, Adelia, was a bit ... spoiled. Most often, she merely had to ask for something to get it, and in the rare instances that didn't happen, tears and screams resulted.
Of course, not everyone in the Voulge household was quite so lucky. Roldan and Carawyn Saal were a pair of the servants who toiled for the Voulges. They had considerably less, their meager wages putting a roof over their home and most of the time food on the table, though that included taking some of the leftovers Adelia decided she didn't want after Carawyn -- or "Cook" as Adelia knew her -- has already prepared it.
Roldan and Carawyn also had a daughter, Jessamy. Jessamy did not have all the dresses and jewelry she wanted, just a cotton frock and a collar she'd woven together out of colored threads her father had brought home from the Voulge manor. She didn't have any servants and spent most of her days trying to help her parents at her home while they waited hand and foot on the Voulges. She didn't have any tutors, and after learning her basic letters and numbers at the local temple of Abadar, was on her own.
What she did have was a the freedom to walk the streets of the city, where she would listen to the merchants swap stories of life on the road. She learned of all the most famous adventurers, gaining fame and fortune as they explored the world. Finally, when she decided she was old enough, Jessamy ran away from home, enlisting as a cabin girl on a merchant vessel. And while it was exciting -- certainly better than scrubbing pots back home -- it also wasn't that much different. She was still scrubbing pots and decks and sewing sails, even if she had learned some basic swordplay as well.
Jessamy realized that just being at sea wasn't enough. She wanted the life Adelia Voulge had. She wanted fame and fortune. So, with stories still filling her head, she set out for Sandpoint, where she figured she would make her name by defeating the infamous Sandpoint Devil.
The next day the party finds themselves once again within the Rusty Dragon alongside Sheriff Hemlock and Shalelu, poring over a map of the surrounding lands.
”If Mokmurian is where the giants say, the best route by foot’s going to be up the Lost Coast Road, over to Ember Lake, then up to Galduria, Wolf ’s Ear, Ravenmoor, and finally the Storval Stairs”, Hemlock explains while drawing a route along the map with the tip of his dagger. ”It’s a long route, and one known to be patrolled by giants, but it’s the quickest by a good margin.”
”From the top of the stairs”, Shalelu explains picking up. ”You’ll want to head directly east into the Iron Peaks and the Valley of the Black Tower. Up through Ravenmoor, this journey travels along roads and tracks and trails, but beyond Ravenmoor it’s open country. The journey is about 320 miles long but most of it is open road so it shouldn’t take longer than 15 days.”
”We’ve packed enough food and water to get you there”, she says while patting a bulging saddlebag laid across the table next to the map. ”But you might want to forage along the way to supplement it.”
STANZA
"If magic bright is your desire, to old Runeforge must you retire! For only there does wizards' art receive its due and proper start." He reads out loud.
"On eastern shores of steaming mirror, at end of day when dusk is nearer, where seven faces silent wait encircled guards at Runeforge gate."
"Each stone the grace of seven lords, one part of key each ruler hoards; If offered spells and proper prayer, take seven keys and climb the stair."
"On frozen mountain Xin awaits, his regal voice the yawning gates. Keys turn twice in Sihedron - occulted Runeforge waits within."
"And now you've come and joined the Forge upon rare lore your mind can gorge. And when you slough the mortal way in Runeforge long your work shall stay."
