Kelpie's page

I’d like to know what the current state of development is of each of the kickstarter add-ons. I purchased a few of these and so am excited to know of course. This is important for me I am inclined to delay starting playing the game until these options become available. It was the destiny’s twin that tempted me to put money into the kickstarter. Without that I wouldn’t have done so, and during EE/beta I’m struggling to persuade myself that paying a premium title subscription fee presents good value for money, given the stage of development of the game, without a destiny’s twin. Also several of the add-ons included equipment of various sorts. These were sold along side the EE packages. I don’t want to find that having paid for this additional equipment, that by the time I receive it I already have better kit and therefore received no value from the product I paid for. So I might defer joining EE until it is available. Similarly having paid for regional trait pack, which should influence my character concept, I don’t want to have created my ‘main’ character only to find out later that the mot appealing regional trait concept fits an entirely different type of character.

I still glance at the Paizo forums periodically, but haven’t seen clear information on any of this so apologies if it’s been covered elsewhere.

Destiny’s Twin. Will I have that at the start of EE?

Player Pack of Consumables. Included in the Adventurer and Pioneer backer levels, also sold for 15$. I’m not overly concerned about this one, but 15$ worth of digital product should be a nice selection of goodies. When I quit EVE 1 PLEX was going for about half a billion ISK which is enough for a serious shopping spree. 15$ worth of gear had better be more than a couple of healing potions and a candle.

Alliance Pack. Included in Pioneer backer levels, also sold for 20$. I believe this gave you a decent starting reputation with one of the factions & possibly some other benefits. Knowing what factions are available could influence the type of character I create. I might defer starting EE until this is released. If there is a limited selection of factions available I wouldn’t want to unknowingly trash my reputation with the most appropriate fit for me in the weeks before the alliance pack becomes available.

Regional trait pack. I bought this one. Again I’m inclined to delay joining EE until this is available to avoid regret. I want to play a character that works with the regional trait pack I paid for. If I want to play a barbarian type character I might expect to take the Lindhorn King regional traits, however if the Lindhorn King traits where for Skalds/bards then I might run with an alternative concept. Note that the regional trait pack offered a small mechanical benefit, which is partly why I bought it. An exception it would seem to the general policy of no pay to win.

Twice-marked of Pharasma. I bought this one. Again it offered mechanical benefit and extra game-play content to those who payed GW the money. Since the mechanical benefit I get might influence the type of character I build I’m inclined to delay EE until it has been released. If for instance the twice-marked of Pharasma mechanical benefit is something particularly suitable for paladin types, then I’d at least like to know that before I create my necromancer character J

I’m hoping GW can provide an update on these packages. I’m sure I’m not the only person to be interested.

Thanks,

kelpie

http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/02/14/some-assembly-required-is-this-real ly-the-sandbox-renaissance/

~ seem to be having trouble posting links lately: random spaces seem to be inserted by the forum formatting. This time between the two 'l's in really

Some speculation on how PFO conquest game might differ from eve.

I believe that in PFO it will be more difficult for numerically small but well equipped and organised groups to dominate territory and resources in the same way as they do in eve. The following are the main points

Instantaneous travel and power projection
Choke points
Local chat
Resource distribution

In eve capital fleets can traverse the universe in minutes. Hot drops on a target several systems distant occur. This allows well-equipped fleets to project power over huge areas. Unless PFO introduces teleporting I don't see this happening in PFO. The corollary being if it takes time to move an army across the map in PFO it becomes difficult to control a large territory unless holding company also large and occupying all territory

In eve there are gates between systems. These are choke points where a PVP outfit can wait and pick off others passing through. Particularly industrialists and pve-ers attempting to operate in lowsec. In PFO if it is possible to cross a boundary between hexes at any point it presumably makes entering hostile territory more feasible and so activities such as ninja mining more feasible. Hideout and watchtower mechanics TPC. Presumably also means to detect and prevent incursions into your territory you must have people present, unlike EVE where many systems are largely empty.

In EVE local chat immediately alerts the occupier of a system that someone has entered. Chat system in PFO FBC. Presumably some form of chat to encourage interaction. If designed so as not to provide location intel it is no longer a tool to detect interlopers. In EVE nulsec alliance members happily mine and PVE in safety until a visitor is seen in local, when they dock up. Local chat also used by macro scripts for bottling. PFO might for instance limit local chat to settlement hexes.

In EVE there have historically been a number of very high value static resources which are generally held by a small number of very rich nulsec alliances. They can claim resources remote from their home systems due to ease of force projection. The extreme value of these few resources means a rich nulsec alliances can wage economic war on others, effectively treating as disposable assets another corp would be unable to replace, and therefore able to outlast other corps in a sustained war. In PFO some hexes will likely be more valuable than others, but hopefully not with the extreme variation that occurs in EVE.

In general I believe in PFO it will be more feasible for casual players to control some territory than in EVE.

Disclaimer - I played EVE for several years, but stopped a while ago.

Is it known if there will be a means to trade, sell or transfer ownership of structures between organisations?

I can see many reasons why this would be useful, eg

- a company of builders might make a business of developing and then selling buildings, PoIs, etc
- as a settlement following a war it might be agreed that structures or hexes change hands
- diplomatic horsetrading
- a company, say an alchemists guild, might want to move from one settlement to another, so might want to sell assets in the first settlement

I think this feature could be necessary and necessary early in the game to avoid a deflation type effect.

If companies have to earn and spend influence to build structures, and if influence is hard to come by, and if owning multiple structures makes additional ones exponentially more expensive (hinted at in The Window's a Wound, the Road Is a Knife blog), then companies might hold off spending influence until the stars align and the perfect opportunity arises to spend accumulated influence on the company's ideal structure. Such an outlook would likely be bad for early settlement and world development.

Knowing however that a structure no longer needed can be traded or sold ought to make companies less likely to hoard influence.

I'm unclear on what the dedication bonus is. Can anyone enlighten me?

I've read that there is a "Dedication Bonus" which provides benefit if you have pursued training in-line with a specific traditional character class.

However I've also read a developer (Stephen Cheney) state that "your sorcerer or bard with a greataxe ....... won't be considered to be slotted for multiple roles unless he puts some Fighter-specific attack feats on the weapon"

Stephen seems to be suggesting that there might be a penalty or loss of advantage if your character is 'slotted' or configured at any point in time as multi-class.

Is Stephen talking about the dedication bonus, or a different system?

Is the access to the dedication bonus based on currently configured skills & feats, or skills known?

If I were to play a wizard and I learned a sword skill for the Gandalf effect, would that mean I can never have a wizard dedication bonus even if I switch back to carrying a staff rather than the sword?

I can understand why a dedication bonus (or penalty to cross classing) might be necessary to manage game balance. Otherwise everyone would take some druid/ranger skills to have an animal companion, everyone LG would take some paladin skills to have a magic mount, and every fighter would take some thief skills to backstab.