Lee Hammock's page

There is an issue with new player and role/class packs currently such that we have disabled them to avoid further problems. They will be available again as soon as we get a fix for the problem.

I posted this on the Alpha forums, but also figured I would post this here:

So the resource numbers have settled down for a bit now and I was again curious what folks are finding not enough of, too much of, etc. Note I am not really concerned with things you have to walk a bit to find, such as coal or gold, but more when people can't find a given resource at all.

Also are there hexes where certain node types feel too prevalent? Are there not enough scavenging nodes in woodland hexes, or too many in the cropland hexes?

Two weeks ago I emailed all the leaders I had on record for the 33 settlements in the War of Towers to ask what settlement template they wanted. Now today is the last day for settlement template choices! Thus far I do not have choices from Keepers of the Circle, Kabal, Forgeholm, Tavernhold, Sunholm, Les Compagnos, The Gauntlet, vVv Gaming, Iron Gauntlet, The Deaders, Open Road, or the Bastard Sons of Daggermark. If you are in these groups and you sent your choice I did not get it so please resend. If you are a member of one of these groups please poke your leaders to get their choice in or I cannot guarantee what they will have in the War of Towers.

So final Land Rush week results. Not a lot of movement, but there was a surprising attempted move by Hammerfist Clan from M to A, which was unsuccessful as Agents of Erastil had it locked down by numbers alone. Lots of population increases among the guilds this last week.

Guild Name Base Population Population Plus Hunker Down Location
Talonguard (NG) 104 K
Golgotha (LE) 97 W
Keepers of the Circle 83 AB
Ozem's Vigil (LG) 76 E
Kabal 69 F
Aragon (CN) 60 X
Dagedai Alliance 50 L
Emerald Lodge 49 V
Forgeholm 47 B
Tavernhold 43 C
Blackwood Glade 36 39.6 Y
Hammerfall 35 38.5 Z
Sunholm 33 38.61 O
Kreuz Bernstein 30 47.4 H
Freevale 29 40.02 I
Les Compagnons 22 33.22 AD
Mystical Awakening 17 24.31 AA
Hope's End (NE) 16 17.28 S
Agents of Erastil 15 20.55 A
Hammerfist Clan 13 13 AC
Terra Australis Incognito 13 21.97 J
Brains and Brawn 12 15.96 U
The Gauntlet 12 13.56 D
Reading Between the Lines 12 18.24 P
vVv Gaming 11 M
The Guardians 9 G
The Iron Gauntlet 9 T
The Deaders 8 R
Open Road 8 N
The Bastard Sons of Daggermark 7 Q

For anyone who cares, the relevant hunker down bonuses for the week:
Hammerfall 0.1
Blackwood Glade 0.1
Sunholm 0.17
Freevale 0.38
Les Compagnons 0.51
Kreuz Bernstien 0.58
Mystical Awakening 0.43
Eastern Sun 0.5
Terra Australis Incognito 0.69
The Gauntlet 0.13
Agents of Erastil 0.37
Read Between the Lines 0.52
Brains and Brawn 0.33
Hope's End 0.08

This week the sassy pants came back out as Kabal, fresh off a recruiting binge it seems rocketed up to number 6, displacing Tavernhold from F and into C (which pushed the Gauntlet out of C despite their hunker down bonus and into D). There was a lot of recruiting paying off this week aside from Kabal as the new Kreuz Bernstein moved up a few spots, Ozem's Vigil snaked around Aragon, and Blackwood Glade moved up but didn't cause any disruptions. The Bastard Sons of Daggermark got back on the list after a long absence thanks to so many mid tier merges.

Number Guild Population Population with Hunker Down Slot
1 Talonguard (NG) 95 K
2 Golgotha (LE) 93 W
3 Keepers of the Circle 74 AB
4 Ozem's Vigil (LG) 71 E
5 Aragon (CN) 56 X
6 Kabal 52 F
7 Dagedai Alliance 50 L
8 Forgeholm 48 B
9 Emerald Lodge 44 V
10 Tavernhold 42 C
11 Blackwood Glade 33 35.97 Y
12 Sunholm 33 37.62 O
13 Hammerfall 33 35.64 Z
14 Kreuz Bernstein 30 39.9 H
15 Freevale 29 38.57 I
16 Les Compagnons 21 30.45 AD
17 Mystical Awakening 17 23.12 AA
18 Agents of Erastil 14 17.22 A
19 Hammerfist Clan 13 22.75 M
20 Brains and Brawn 12 14.52 U
21 The Gauntlet 12 D
22 Reading Between the Lines 12 16.56 P
23 Terra Australis Incognito 12 18.96 J
24 Hope's End (NE) 12 S
25 vVv Gaming 11 N
26 The Guardians 9 G
27 The Iron Gauntlet 9 T
28 The Deaders 8 R
29 Open Road 8 Q
30 The Bastard Sons of Daggermark 7 AC

Sorry for the delay two weeks on a row folks, and there may be a delay next week as well. Long story short: doctors visits are long.

Not a lot movement this week; Kabal took off the sassy pants, but I suspect they have not put them away for the duration. Lots of movement at the bottom range, not much at the middle or top. The first 24 slots all pretty much got their first pick, or at least stayed in the same location as last week. Hunker down bonuses are really starting to accrue in the middle range.

List is showing place, settlement, population, population plus hunker down bonus, and placement. Note settlements 1-10 do not get a hunker down bonus nor to they accrue one, but if they earned one previously and they drop out of the top ten they get it back (as seemed to be the popular opinion from last week).

1 Talonguard (NG) 93 K
2 Golgotha (LE) 92 W
3 Keepers of the Circle 74 AB
4 Ozem's Vigil (LG) 60 E
5 Aragon (CN) 56 X
6 Dagedai Alliance 50 L
7 Forgeholm 48 B
8 Emerald Lodge 44 V
9 Tavernhold 39 F
10 Kabal 34 Q
11 Blackwood Glade 33 35.64 Y
12 Sunholm 33 36.96 O
13 Hammerfall 33 34.65 Z
14 Freevale 29 37.12 I
15 Eastern Sun 28 42 H
16 Les Compagnons 21 29.19 AD
17 Mystical Awakening 17 21.93 AA
18 Elkhaven 17 21.93 G
19 Agents of Erastil 14 16.66 A
20 Hammerfist Clan 13 21.58 M
21 Brains and Brawn 12 13.32 U
22 The Gauntlet 12 19.08 C
23 Reading Between the Lines 12 15.12 P
24 Terra Australis Incognito 12 17.4 J
25 vVv Gaming 11 N
26 The Guardians 9 D
27 The Iron Gauntlet 9 T
28 The Deaders 8 R
29 Open Road 8 S
30 Hope's End (NE) 8 AC

EDIT: Oh, whoops, had not noticed that Eastern Sun and Quadrivium had joined up. Good job guys!

So the big news this week is the Librarians of Doom relinquished their hold on Q, joining up with Freevale. Freevale was a big mover this week, plus with a decent hunker down bonus they are sitting pretty good. We also had several other settlements move up and down in the top ten, but no real position changes.

Also it seems Kabal continued to wear their sassy pants as they staked their claim to Q despite it being pretty public knowledge that the Hands of Abbraxas had been gunning for it last week. Kabal continues to be the wild card player.

Quadrivium tried to move into H, but Eastern Sun's hunker down bonus allowed them to keep it, so Quadrivium ended up in S same as last week.

If anyone from the Guardians is reading this, please have your guild head update his draft. It reads ABCDEFGHI etc etc.

Trying a new display this week
Settlement Name Population Population + Hunker Down Position
Talonguard (NG) 92 92 K
Golgotha (LE) 91 91 W
Keepers of the Circle 74 74 AB
Aragon (CN) 56 56 X
Ozem's Vigil (LG) 55 55 E
Dagedai Alliance 49 49 L
Forgeholm 46 46 B
Emerald Lodge 45 45 V
Tavernhold 36 36 F
Sunholm 33 33 O
Hammerfall 33 33.66 Z
Blackwood Glade 32 34.24 Y
Freevale 29 35.96 I
Kabal 25 25 Q
Les Compagnons 21 27.93 AD
Elkhaven 19 22.99 G
Mystical Awakening 17 20.74 AA
Eastern Sun 15 21.75 H
Quadrivium 15 15 S
Agents of Erastil 14 15.4 A
Hammerfist Clan 13 20.28 M
Reading Between the Lines 13 13 P
Brains and Brawn 12 12 U
The Gauntlet 12 17.64 C
vVv Gaming 11 11 N
Terra Australis Incognito 11 14.41 J
The Guardians 9 9 D
The Iron Gauntlet 9 9 AC
Hand of Abraxas 9 9 R
The Deaders 8 8 T

So new rules question that I don't think I specifically stated that has come up with Tavernhold and Sunholm. Both of those guilds worked their way into the top 10 or have bounced in an out while retaining their spots. While they do not get hunker down bonus while in the top ten, should they keep their comparatively minor hunker down bonus from previous weeks not in the top ten? I don't believe this was ever specified. My instinct is to say yes, especially since it's a few percentage points that are unlikely to make a difference (Note currently Sunholm and Tavernhold's points do not represent a hunker down bonus, but adding it would not change anyone's position this week). Last time we seemed to have a pretty good discussion about a rules question, so I figured I would try this again.

So this week we had some movement up and down at the top end, but no displacement until we get to Kabal. Kabal decided to put on their sassy pants and move to AC, bumping out Agents of Erastil despite their hunker down bonus. Agents of Erastil ended up in A as they also did not have enough to displace Librarians of Doom thanks to the Librarians substantial hunker down bonus. Also the Librarians fought off an attempted move by Hand of Abraxas thanks to their hunker down bonus. This caused a chain reaction that caused pretty much everyone in the last eight slots except Terra Australis Incognito to move.

I've ordered the settlements this week not by pure numbers but by numbers plus hunker down bonus (hence the Librarians placing so high).

Talonguard (NG) K
Golgotha (LE) W
Keepers of the Circle AB
Ozem's Vigil (LG) E
Aragon (CN) X
Dagedai Alliance L
Forgeholm B
Emerald Lodge V
Tavernhold F
Blackwood Glade Y
Sunholm O
Hammerfall Z
Les Compagnons AD
Kabal AC
Elkhaven G
Freevale I
Eastern Sun H
Mystical Awakening AA
Librarians of Doom Q
The Gauntlet C
Hammerfist Clan M
Agents of Erastil A
Quadrivium S
Hand of Abraxas U
Reading Between the Lines P
Brains and Brawn D
Terra Australis Incognito J
vVv Gaming N
The Guardians R
The Iron Gauntlet T

This week was pretty static overall. Kabal and Terra Australis Incognito moved, but other than that not much movement in the top 20. We did see some movement in the lower range, but it was what I would call the standard churn (also we had guild place in the top 30 that turned in ABCDEF etc for their settlement draft, so make sure you actually turn in a draft or you will end up in strange places). The only new guild on the board this week was Open Road, which along with other guilds growing has kicked some of the previous placing guilds off the list.

I am going to clarify a two rules here:
1. I had not been counting the hunker down bonus when determining who gets a settlement (i.e. the top 30 settlements), only to settle conflicts between the largest/oldest 30 settlements. Going forward I will include the hunker down bonus in choosing the top 30 settlements calculations.

2. Going forward, the hunker down bonus only applies if you are remaining in a settlement that is your first choice of settlement. Basically if you get into a less than ideal spot you can choose to try and keep it by hunkering down there and making it your first choice, or you can shoot for bigger fish if you want to risk losing the spot you have. Currently we have some guilds on the lower end of things that before this week were consistently ending up in their tenth choice, and trying to figure that out while also figuring out of all the slightly smaller settlements that may end up with a hunker down bonus due to ending up in their eighth slot for the third week is a lot of confusing math work that will lead to mistakes and confusion. So instead if you end up on the lower end of things but you like where you are, be like the Librarians of Doom and go Q all the way, all day, all the time such that they now need a guild nearly twice their size to displace them or knock them off the list. That is the type of strategic choice we're shooting for; the Librarians may not have the best spot, but by being consistent in their choice they will remain on board long after their size would warrant.

Talonguard (NG) 89 K
Golgotha (LE) 87 W
Keepers of the Circle 74 AB
Aragon (CN) 54 X
Ozem's Vigil 53 E
Dagedai Alliance 49 L
Forgeholm 42 B
Tavernhold 35 F
Emerald Lodge 35 V
Hammerfall 33 Z
Blackwood Glade 32 Y
Sunholm 28 O
Kabal 28 R
Freevale 21 I
Les Compagnons 18 AD
Elkhaven 18 G
Mystical Awakening 17 AA
Eastern Sun 14 H
Terra Australis Incognito 14 A
Golarion Liberators 14 N
Agents of Erastil 13 AC
Hammerfist Clan 13 M
Brains and Brawn 12 D
Reading Between the Lines 12 T
The Gauntlet 11 C
vVv Gaming 10 J
The Guardians 9 P
The Iron Gauntlet 9 U
Open Road 9 S
Librarians of Doom 8 Q

Talonguard (NG) K
Settlement: Golgotha (LE) W
Keepers of the Circle AB
Aragon (CN) X
Ozem's Vigil E
Dagedai Alliance L
Forgeholm B
Thod's Friends V
Hammerfall Z
Tavernhold F
Blackwood Glade Y
Kabal D
The Phoenix Brotherhood O
Freevale I
Elkhaven G
Les Compagnons AD
Mystical Awakening AA
Eastern Sun H
Hammerfist Clan M
Brains and Brawn S
Agents of Erastil AC
Reading Between the Lines R
The Gauntlet C
Terra Australis Incognito J
vVv Gaming A
The Iron Gauntlet U
Golarion Liberators N
Librarians of Doom Q
The Guardians P
The Bastard Sons of Daggermark T

So the big news for this week is Kabal coming from nowhere to place in the top 10. This didn't cause as much disruption as I expected, but it did force Tavenrhold out of F and into J, which forced The Iron Gauntlet out of J and they had to go pretty far down their list to find the next free spot. The Gauntlet managed to hold on to D against Brains and Brawn thanks to their hunker down bonus despite a one person edge to Brains and Brawn, but it is extremely close. Also Agents of Erastil manages to hold on to AC in against Brains and Brawn thanks to their hunker down bonus.

Talonguard (NG) K
Pax Golgotha W
Keepers of the Circle AB
Settlement: Aragon (CN) X
Ozem's Vigil E
Dagedai Alliance L
Forgeholm B
Hammerfall Z
Kabal F
Thod's Friends V
Tavernhold J
Taur-im-Duinath Y
The Phoenix Brotherhood O
Freevale I
Elkhaven G
Mystical Awakening C
Les Compagnons AD
Eastern Sun H
Hammerfist Clan M
Brains and Brawn S
Agents of Erastil AC
Reading Between the Lines R
The Gauntlet D
vVv Gaming AA
The Iron Gauntlet U
Golarion Libertators N
The Bastard Sons of Daggermark Q
Otium Explorator P
Librarians of Doom A
Four Rivers Mercenary Corp T

If a settlement wants to change it's name please have the founder send me a PM and I'll handle it. Only the user who founded the guild can request the change.

So it was an overall slower week than I expected given some of the high level moves we had; from places 15 and up everyone pretty much stayed in their spot. I guess they like where they are! Things for more interesting around the 20th spot where Reading Between the Lines made a pretty good placing their first week and Brains and Brawn moved up the charts, but not enough to offset the "Hunker Down" bonus of the Gauntlet and the Iron Gauntlet (but it was really close!). Otium Explorer and The Vigilant were able to hang onto their spots the same way.

Talonguard (NG) K
Pax Golgotha W
Keepers of the Circle AB
Settlement: Aragon (CN) X
Ozem's Vigil E
Dagedai Alliance L
Forgeholm B
Hammerfall Z
Thod's Friends V
Taur-im-Duinath Y
The Golden Flask F
The Phoenix Brotherhood O
Mystical Awakening C
Freevale I
Les Compagnons AD
Eastern Sun H
Hammerfist Clan M
Agents of Erastil AC
Reading Between the Lines R
Brains and Brawn A
Dreamchasers U
vVv Gaming AA
The Gauntlet D
The Iron Gauntlet J
Erastil's Irregulars P
The Bastard Sons of Daggermark S
Otium Explorator G
The Vigilant N
Librarians of Doom Q
Four Rivers Mercenary Corp T

So you may have noticed we're trying a new overlay on the land rush map; this one goes from red to blue as a heat map indicating the size of the guild. So the redder the bigger, the bluer the smaller. If y'all prefer the old version, let us know, we can change it back.

The new map will be up shortly, but for those who don't want to hunt and peck for their guild's placement:

Pax Golgotha W
Keepers of the Circle AB
Magistry K
Ozem's Vigil E
Dagedai Alliance L
Settlement: Aragon (CN) X
Forgeholm B
Hammerfall Z
The Phoenix Brotherhood O
Thod's Friends V
The Golden Flask F
Mystical Awakening C
Freevale A
Eastern Sun H
Hammerfist Clan M
Taur-im-Duinath Y
Les Compagnons AD
vVv Gaming AA
The Gauntlet D
The Iron Gauntlet I
Agents of Erastil AC
Dreamchasers U
Erastil's Irregulars P
Otium Explorator G
The Vigilant N
Brains and Brawn J
The Bastard Sons of Daggermark Q
Green Mountain Militia T
Librarians of Doom R
Phantasmagoria S

Everyone needs to have their land rush information in by midnight PDT. Results will be available probably some time around 10AM PDT Monday morning. Pretty much as fast as I can get them done in the morning (I currently have a sick toddler at home so I need to be there, not in the office until 2AM). The results so far are very interesting; we're going to have more conflicts than I expected!

For the Land Rush we are being pretty flexible with naming of guilds since they aren't the same social structures as will be in game, and we want people from existing multi-game guilds to be able to find their group. That said, once we get into Early Enrollment, we will not be so forgiving.

Names in PFO need to be world appropriate. Names that are not world appropriate will asked to be changed. Some rules for determining if your name is world appropriate:

1. It references characters, places, things, etc, from non-Pathfinder IP. If you had a company called the Rohirrim Militia or the Sadakar Reserves (hopefully spelling those right), those would not get approved. A good test is to think "Could Paizo publish my company/settlement name in a book without confusion or legal action?" If this answer is no, you need a new name.

2. No referencing real world things like languages, people, places, in your company/settlement name. If you want to specify your company/settlement is primarily for players in a specific country or that speak a specific language put it in the description, not the name.

3. No referencing game mechanics in your company/settlement name. No "Instance Runners" (not that we have instances) or "Crafting Skill 12+ Only" company names.

4. Names that are not in English will be dealt with on a case by case basis, but generally we would prefer to avoid them. Our languages don't exist in Golarion, but if it sounds cool and isn't immersion breaking it may work. No Stercus Accidit or other ridiculousness (yay! All those years of Latin finally were useful!).

Really the sniff test is could Paizo put this in a book, have it sound good, be legal, etc (not saying Paizo will or anything like that, but it is the best conceptual test).

We are going to be a more forgiving in terms of naming conventions in the Land Rush than we will in PFO when it goes live. Things to remember in terms of naming aside from the obvious (no curse words, etc):

1. Your settlement is going to need to have a name that sounds like a place, and has no references to the real world, other IPs, etc. No Skywalkertown, no Moria, and while the Company of the Griffon could be your company name it cannot be a settlement name. Yes, we are going to approve all settlement names by hand.
2. Your company names should not reference real world people, places, or things.
3. Make sure you do not use company or settlement names from other IPs. We can't have a Company of Drizzt running around the game, nor can we have a settlement called Waterdeep. We've had some close calls on this front in the names so far, but they've mainly been coincidences involving commonly titles/terminology rather than common names.

Also make sure you fill out your motto and description. If neither of these are filled out your guild application will not be approved (unless I click the wrong button, which has happened once, but the guild has been notified anyways). Also fill out your founder email as otherwise I have to go to the forums to find you and that just drags everything out.

Please PM me or email customer service. Your guild application had no founder email attached to it.

Could you PM me? There is no contact email on your guild application, nor can I find any user information for you.

Hey all!

New blog post is up with some more in depth instructions for the Land Rush. The new webpages and such described therein should be up early next week.

Rushing the Land

Hey all!

We're not going to be releasing the blog until Thursday or Friday this week in order to coincide with some other work we're going to be doing on the website.

As we get closer to Alpha and Early Enrollment we're narrowing our focus on game design topics towards the systems that will be ready as each of those phases begins. To facilitate our interaction with the community we're going to begin doing Q&A video segments with the game design team that will be presented with the bi-weekly blogs. We are going to solicit your questions here on the forums in this thread.

We'd like our fans on the forum to post questions in replies to this post. We'll sort through them to find ones that we think have interesting answers. This does not mean we'll answer every question posted, as there will likely be questions where our only answer is "we don't know yet" or "we'd like to do that but we don't know when we will." We'll try to stick to things that currently have more substantive answers (though maybe every once in awhile we'll do a lightning round with a bunch of short answer questions).

The questions will most likely be answered by myself, Stephen, Tork, and Bob (though other folks here at Goblinworks may get involved as well). Again, we will be retaining the every other week schedule so as not to take too much time from development duties.