Lord Zodd's page

SBC is now a group of homeless barbarians. I am glad that a lot of folks are wanting to help us find a new home. I for one am not in any hurry to join a new settlement, now that the Land Rush is over. We need to make sure that any new home is a great fit for us, and has leadership that is worthy of our respect and trust. Also a home that is alright with housing a bunch of rage fueled bringers of death.

I have come to realize that I need to take a break from PFO related things for a week or two to cleanse the palate. Summer is in full swing here in Seattle, so I am going to enjoy some nature.

Getting a post deleted by a forum moderator is a good indicator that I shouldn't be on these forums right now. Especially after a few ales haha.

So please direct any SBC related business to Ravenlute.

I am not a fan of this kind of drama, and I apologize for expressing myself in a negative way in my earlier post. Andius, sorry about that jab haha. All I meant is that I wasn't going to swear revenge on those that have wronged me.

I am going to objectively list facts and let others form their own opinions.

At the start of the Land Rush, the companies Outsiders, Blunt Logic, and Stone Bear Clan decided to join up their votes so they could get a settlement. Blunt Logic had managed to submit their Settlement to the Land Rush a little earlier than Outsiders and SBC so it was decided to use their Submission in case of a tie. No one company was supposed to be in charge. All companies were equal.

A form of government was decided on that everyone agreed to. Gpunk was voted as the Ambassador of Freevale, but the general consensus from members of Freevale was not to make any binding agreements with other groups until at least a settlement spot was secured.

Freevale's council voted, and it was decided that Freevale would join the NC's non-aggression pact. Gpunk expressed his displeasure at how long the process took, but as it was the council's first big decision, it could be expected that the process would have some wrinkles that needed ironing out. During the process, CBDunkerson did voice his concerns about making formal agreements. Blunt Logic members told him that he was making things harder with other NC members and asked him to stop.

Ravenlute was voted into a position by the council that required him to debate things with Gpunk a lot on our forums. Gpunk repeatedly expressed his displeasure with things, and Ravenlute in particular, but never attempted to get the Freevale council to vote on changing the way the government operated.

I will add a none objective part here: it seemed like the majority of Freevale was content to wait until we at least had a settlement location locked in before making any big decisions for the settlement. That is why a lot of folks kept quite on our forums, because they didn't see the point in jumping the gun.

Right after the Land Rush ended, Blunt Logic declared the current government dissolved and set themselves as being in charge of Freevale now. The other founding members, Stone Bear Clan and Outsiders have both expressed their surprise and anger about this.

Ok those were the facts, now here are my personal feels... I know it isn't cool to burden you fine folks with my opinions, but writing this out is therapeutic.

The funny thing here is that I actually agree that running a Settlement with a council of equal representatives would be really hard to do. Sometimes decisions have to be made quickly, I am familiar with the realities of how games like this work. At its inception, Freevale was meant to be able to grow organically to change as needed to be a successful Settlement. Had the proper avenues been used, Freevale's government could have been changed while upholding it's founding principles.

After Blunt Logic's heavy handedness in declaring themselves Masters of Freevale, with complete disregard for what anyone else in Freevale wanted, I will have a hard time trusting them enough to remain in Freevale.

It is sad to see something you helped build be unfairly twisted like this, but I know that as a sandbox, PFO will be full of such things. It isn't like it was even real yet. I mean at least Freevale wasn't burned to the ground, which is something that will be possible in PFO eventually. Imagine how bad that is going to feel for folks when after months and maybe years of hard work their settlement gets razed. It is going to happen, probably to most of us. I have felt that pain in a Sandbox before and whew, I hope you all mentally prepare yourselves.

Anyway, it is what it is. I won't post about it anymore, promise.

What happened to the group that was going to choose their leader via combat challenges?

Did they end up joining Freevale?

I loved that idea.

That group is the Stone Bear Clan.

While it is true that we were among those suckered into giving our Land Rush votes to Freevale, Blunt Logic has revealed their true colors today... Conveniently the day after the end of the Land Rush.

I doubt the SBC will remain in a Settlement that allows such under handed tactics.

It was a mistake to trust Blunt Logic with Freevale's keys. I wanted CBDunkerson to have control of the Land Rush for Freevale, but Blunt Logic had happened to submit their Settlement earlier. So when we consolidated, we decided to let Blunt Logic have control of the Land Rush part in case of a tie. Now there is no in game mechanic for Freevale's council to do anything about Blunt Logic's power play.

We had tried to build something unique with Freevale, a bastion for the Chaotic. A home that held freedom for it's citizens as the highest priority. A place where multiple groups could work together as equals and build a city. When we first joined up to create Freevale there were those that said we couldn't make it work. That getting multiple companies to work together for the Settlement was not feasible. Thank you Blunt Logic for proving them right. Yes democracy is hard, it clearly was too difficult for you, so you should have stepped down as Ambassador. Instead, today when I went to the Freevale guildsite to celebrate with everyone for keeping 'I' as our Settlement location I find that Blunt Logic has declared themselves the Master of Freevale. What an immense let down.

It is obvious that Gpunk and Blunt Logic were under pressure from Pax and Aragon to cement a solid alliance, something the council of Freevale was strongly opposed to, something that, now that Blunt Logic has seized control, I am sure we will see very soon. It will be interesting to see what becomes of "Freevale" after it becomes just another puppet settlement for the Empire of Xeilias. I know that you guys want to put on a strong front to intimidate the Hugbox Alliance, er, I mean Roseblood Accord. Did you really have to drag Freevale into it though?

I have played games like this before, anything can burn, so I am not going to hold a grudge. Last thing PFO needs is another Andius :p

Freevale has a lot of quality folks and it was a genuine pleasure talking with you all and dreaming of building a unique home together.

Easy come, easy go. It is all a part of the game. If anything, this experience makes me want to play PFO all the more. Such political backstabbing makes for a great story after all.

That is super sad Keovar. It is obvious that you have invested a lot of time and effort, not just money, into Pathfinder Online. It will be a dimmer realm without you.

That being said, you have to do what you have to do.

Wherever your road takes you, I wish you the best of luck.

Well now that this has turned into some sort of "Low Rep" shenanigans I will retire from this thread.

I tried to alleviate some concerns about the fact that one Settlement can't fully support all skills, and hopefully I have. For those of you that still have concerns, I urge you to keep an open mind and see how the game actually works.

I think this is an issue of perspective and expectations of the game.

People seem to be thinking that they will have to only worry about one Settlement and that it will only have one company. Maybe some smaller companies they make, but just to be able to claim Towers, and later, PoIs.

Save yourself a lot of grief and stop thinking that way.

That is not how the game is designed to be. That doesn't create the level of interaction between players that GW is aiming for.

The way that I think of the game is at a larger scale. A nation scale, where various nations are competing for resources and where Settlements are one of these resources. The nations are made up of many different companies and multiple Settlements. This is how the game is designed to end up as. In this case the nation is your character's home, not just one particular Settlement. Looking at the game in this light shows that there is no problem with limited support buildings.

1. Travel time
We don't really know how logging into the game is going to work yet. If you logout in a different Settlement, will you log back in at your Settlement, or will you log back in wherever you logged out?
If you and your friends are in neighboring Settlements(which you should be if you are in the same nation) meeting up will be a couple minutes.
Travel time is always going to be a concern in PFO, but when it comes to forming a party with your friends Travel time probably won't be the concern you think it is.

2. Engaging in "meaningful pvp" (the feud system is company based the war mechanic is city based.)
Yes. Not sure how you mean the support structures mechanic will add or detract from meaningful PvP. Please explain.

3. Being able to contribute to your "settlement resource" with people you actually like. I know I would be way more invested in helping build a city where I like the leadership as apposed to somewhere that I have to live because they happen to support my skill set.
I don't see any reason why you can't like the leadership of a Settlement that supports your skills. If there is only one settlement that will allow you access that supports the skills you want and it is run by jerkwads then convince other people to help you kill them and take their Settlement.

So far in this thread the only valid concern anyone has stated is that they are worried that this game mechanic will prevent them from playing with their friends. I haven't heard an actual reason why people believe this is true though, just that they are concerned that it will be the case.

There is absolutely NOTHING preventing you from playing the game with someone from a different settlement. Don't confuse Companies with Settlements. You can all be in the same company and call different settlements home. If you guys want to attack or defend a settlement, your company does a feud and there won't be any confusion on the battlefield. Heck you can even all thread bind your characters to the same place, if you are worried about having to run to meet up.

Please, explain to me how you can't play with your friends?

It also seems like people are thinking of Settlements in a way differently than me. I think of a Settlement as a resource. Something my character needs to train and support his skills. I need to defend this resource and maintain its upkeep to ensure my character has access to his maximum potential. I like this because it keeps me invested in something physical in the world besides just my character.

Lets look at some current, or as planned, facts of the game. The player towns are called Settlements, not Cities, for a reason. They are supposed to be small towns in the untamed lands of the River Kingdoms, like a settlement in the wild west. Thus they are limited on how many buildings they can have due to DI. Support buildings are one of those limiting choices a settlement needs to make when they use their DI. Most settlements will most likely have a lot of low tier support structures, but only a couple high tier ones. Along with some training buildings. This is the intended way a settlement will be set up. As such, for a company to be able to get all it's members access to training and support it will need to be involved in multiple Settlements. When enough like minded companies band together with enough Settlements then it becomes a Nation. (I am not sure about any actual in game Nation mechanics, but I hope there will be some). Now the companies in the Nation have to work together to support and defend their Settlements. If they need more Settlements to get training and support for skills then they will go to war and take someone else's Settlement. There are a limited number of Settlement hexes so Settlements are a limited resource that people will be fighting over all the time. If one of the Settlements in your nation is destroyed and it was the only one your nation had that supported top tier evocation spells, then you have 30 days to get it back or to reallocate some things in a different Settlement to gain that support again or you will have some unhappy spellcasters. That is very meaningful and just because there might be some other meaningful choices in the game, does not negate this one's very real value.

I personally do not see anything wrong with the intended game in the above paragraph. If you do, then explain specifically why and use facts, don't present vague feelings as an argument.

I like the way Tork totally derailed the thread with asking for names other than support structures for the Civic Assets. To divert their juices, creative and otherwise, into something constructive.

Masterfully done. *tips green hat*

Also, they will be called Civic Assets. It is done.

Lets go back to freaking out about the good news this blog gave us.

For example, this is a very significant point of difference between the two:

-Aet- Charlie wrote:

... all future signatories are approved by the leadership of the signatories. Such a vote needs to be unanimous.

Yep, it looks like our club is more exclusive than yours :p

Well I when I got back from the tavern I saw that I got a basket with some food inside and since I was really hungry (and maybe a little buzzed) I ate everything in it, but I never got a sweater vest...

Don't tell me that the sweater vest was in the basket...

OMG I think I ate the sweater vest.

Join the Stone Bear Clan, the company that has brought you the tradition of Loin Cloth Wednesdays.

Every new settler gets a slice of key lime pie and a large glass of strawberry lemonade.

Wait... what?!

I never got any pie or lemonade :(

Close enough for a gnome.

What isn't close enough for a gnome?

Welcome to an installment of:

Loin Cloth Wednesdays!

Zodd groans as he wakes up. Pressing his hand to his head the barbarian tries to will the hangover headache away.

Movement next to him in the bed causes him to crack his eyes open. Upon seeing a buxom lass curled against him, Zodd grins. He didn't remember leaving the tavern last night with her or what her name was, but he supposed he could make up for that. Gently running his hand through her tangled hair the scarred barbarian leans over to wake her with a kiss to her temple.

Some time later Zodd leaves his house wearing only a loin cloth and his sword strapped to his back. He had noticed that his green hat was on the floor of his bedroom, so today must be Wednesday. Which meant that it was another chance to try to get more of his friends in Freevale to embrace the proud Stone Bear Clan tradition of Loin Cloth Wednesdays.

Striding purposefully through the town, his bare feet slapping on cobblestones, Zodd keeps his squinted eyes peeled for signs of life in the light of the rising sun. Almost everyone had participated in the keg race last night and it was possible that no one else was awake yet.

He decides to stop by the tavern first to harass any of his friends that had stayed there the entire night. Of course, it might not hurt to get an ale to chase away his hangover as well.

Outside of the tavern Zodd notices something that causes him to burst into laughter. A keg barrel was turned on it's side and inside was curled the familiar sleeping form of Grickin (Kobold Cleaver) with a first place ribbon stuck to his cheek. Zodd had no idea how the little fellow managed to win every single keg race they had in Freevale, but he suspected there might be some kind of magic trickery involved.

While puzzling about how he might go about catching the little rascal in the act of using magic, the hairs on the barbarian’s neck stand on end. Instinct has his sword in his hand as Zodd swivels around to face whatever was sneaking up on him. In the shadows of a building he catches the gleam of evil red eyes and the shine of razor sharp teeth.

A little voice squeaks,

Goblins sneak and goblins spy,
Goblins listen for baby’s cry,

More voices, from sources around him that Zodd couldn't see, quietly sing along,

Find the crib and climb beneath,
Draw the blade and lick your teeth.

Zodd wasn't sure which god he had pissed off enough that he had to deal with a Goblin raiding party this early in the day, but he wasn't going to waste any time lamenting his luck. The barbarian takes a deep breath and bellows as loud as he can,

“To arms! Freevale is under attack!”

Not waiting to see if any of his clan mates woke up to help, Zodd lunges forward with his two handed sword swinging down at the grinning goblin he could see in the shadows. The creatures red eyes widened in disbelief as four feet of steel cleaved into it.

The other hidden goblins raise their voices as they start up a new song,

You will scream and you will run
Goblins chase you down for fun
Goblins hide where you can’t spy
Goblins snatch and gouge your eye

Zodd whirls his head from side to side trying to find more of the little monsters. He doesn't notice the goblin that launches itself from a nearby roof until it sinks its rusty dagger into his shoulder with a gleeful cackle.

The barbarian roars in pain and anger. Zodd welcomes the hot fury that rushes through his veins. Any trace of his hangover disappears as the spirit of the bear floods his body with rage. Zodd's vision becomes a haze of red and he loses himself in combat.

The next thing he knows, Zodd sees goblin corpses strewn all over the ground except for one that was still speared on the sword held firmly in his hands. The creature's little green hands were clutching at the blade while it coughed blood. Zodd raises an eyebrow as the goblin manages to cough one more verse,

Stabby day, stabby day
Glad to see you here today
We’re glad you came this way
It’s a stabby day

With a snort of disgust Zodd kicks the goblin off his sword and looks around.

The citizens of Freevale filled the streets, weapons in hand. He noticed with wry humor that most of them had entered the fight straight from sleep and so were only wearing their underwear. Zodd supposed that was about as close as he was going to get to having his fellow towns folk participate in Loin Cloth Wednesday.

Heading back to the tavern for a well deserved drink Zodd is not surprised to see that Grickin is still fast asleep, snoring softly, in the winning keg barrel.

He isn't my hero because he was humble haha. I personally don't care how "nice" people are. I judge people on their actions, not their words. Which is why I will never get caught up in the nonsense on these forums. My skin is too thick.

I will miss Ryans blunt one-liners though.

I hope he still drops some truth bombs now and again.

Welcome to the family Bonny :)

Richard Feynman is one my heroes.

Lord Zodd wrote:

For those of you that watch Game of Thrones, think of the Stone Bear Clan as a mix between the Dothraki and the Wildlings.

I was thinking more like the Mountain Tribes from the Vale - Timmet son of Timmet type stuff.

Yeah, that too.

For those of you that watch Game of Thrones, think of the Stone Bear Clan as a mix between the Dothraki and the Wildlings.

If role playing a character such as that doesn't sound like a great time to you, then you have nothing, but mush between your ears :p

Join our family. We live as brothers and sisters, and trust me, you want me as your brother.

Dwarves just hold their breaths and walk along the bottom when they are underwater. Duh.

Though seeing a Dwarf dog paddle to shore wearing those yellow duck floatees would be amazing!

summon: Lee Hammock I

Pretty sure you need to cast Summon: Lee Hammock 4 at least, 1 isn't high enough level.

Barbarian Bump!

It is like a fist bump, but to each other's faces.

Screw that noise!

GIVE THE BULLYMONG FUR TO ME AND I'LL GIVE YOU A SHOTGUN!!!

Nice Borderlands 2 reference :)

For serial you guys! ManBearPig ate VictorBearWolf. That is why he can't respond to this thread.

If you don't reapply then your name will be forever associated with making a big mistake.

Like, "Gpunk sure did pull a Victorbearwolf today."

You don't want that.

That is handy that the darkest red, Golgotha, and the darkest blue, Phantasmagoria, are right next to each other so we can easily compare the two extremes.

Also, Freevale needs to get more on the red side. The weird overly transparent pink is not cutting it for me.

Join Freevale. We invented the weekly keg race. Where we drink big kegs of ale. We take those empty kegs up to the top of a hill and get inside then we roll downhill.

Kobold Cleaver has been the reigning champion for 5 weeks running.

I hope that Aragon and Freevale get to keep their current settlement locations.

We, revelers of chaos, should stick together.

Thanks Jazzlvraz!

though personally, I would lend a healing hand to anyone I know is from the Northern Coalition if I saw them in need.

I might help someone too, but I won't feel obligated to. This was an important point of distinction I was trying to make.

you mean some prearranged PvP activity that the UNC is mutually interested in enjoying with you

Yes. This is what I mean.

Don't worry, I won't just attack anyone else in the NC without out making sure they are ok with it first.

The Lord Regent demands they post it already.

Come on man, don't refer to yourself in the third person... by your made up title no less.

Lord Zodd disapproves of such things :p

KC, you are clearly a delight to this community.

But lets be honest, most players that have jerky characters are jerks themselves.

Any system is going to have to generalize to a point and GW is going to punish jerky behavior. I think this is a good thing over all, even if your character isn't as well received in society as you might like.

Look at the big picture here and don't just think about how a game mechanic might affect you as an individual. GW can't make everyone happy.

As a member of Freevale and a raging barbarian of the Stone Bear Clan, I just want to point out that this doesn't make me friends with the other members that have signed this.

This is no Roseblood Accord.

If I am out in the wilderness and I happen upon a pitched battle between TEO and Pax I am not going to help either side. I will avoid it, and be about my business. Or I might loot some corpses.

The point is, I don't consider myself obligated to assist the other signatories of the northern coalition. I just won't rage all over their faces upon site, unless they offer insult.

The only loyalty I have is to my company of Rage brothers and sisters and to my settlement.

I fully intend to keep the PvP skills of certain members of the UNC nice and sharp by ambushing them on the regular, but it will be good-natured fun ;)

I am pretty sure the Hippie wolf loses the fight. He would be too busy trying to hug the angry wolf.

Emotes and social clothing go a long way towards assisting with RP in a MMO.

Personally I will be RPing Zodd, and any other characters I have, as much as possible, because it enriches the experience for me.

I don't understand what this thread is trying to accomplish. I am not being dismissive, I am genuinely unsure what Hobs wants Ryan to do.

Do you not want Ryan to talk to us anymore, or do you want him to hire a lawyer to proof read any statement he makes to ensure that it can't be misinterpreted? Do you just want him to be nicer, to baby your feelings?

Yes, we all gave GW money. So what? I have given plenty of money to other companies to play their games and I never felt entitled enough to address the CEO personally.

Be thankful that Ryan cares so much about this game that he is engaged in the community. I am not saying that you shouldn't voice concerns, just make sure that they are valid ones.

If the only thing you guys are complaining about is that the CEO of the company, making a game that you really really want to play is not being as clear or as nice as you want him to be when he regularly communicates with you...

You need to go take a walk in a park and reflect about life.

Dear Mister Cheney,

Do you and Ryan ever meet at the water cooler and have conversations like:

Stephen: "Hey."
Ryan: "Hey, what's up?"
Stephen: "Man, I've been handling this Crafting System thread all day. Real pain in the patooty. These gamers sure have a lot of questions, and I'm never sure which ones are a good idea to answer. Really distracting me from my real work, but I make do. You?"
Ryan: "I've been handling the Pax threads."
*Awkward silence*

I almost snorted my beverage out my nose.

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

The Heralds might have some use for that. ;P

Hey now! This isn't intended to be useful. You're supposed to get drunk, do embarassing things that people will snicker about for years, and fall over.

If you happen to write a drunken review in the process I suppose that's alright.

I am really good at falling over drunk.

We should have a falling over contest during the pub crawl.

Whoever falls over the best gets a free Zodd crafted weapon of their choice.

Shoot for the stars! I mean my ship, shoot for my ship.

A great tale of using your wits to overcome a more powerful enemy :)

I raise my ale mug to you and I thank you for sharing!

Glad to have you Hogar :)

Zodd strides into the tavern clad only in a Loin cloth. Moving to stand at the bar he raises his hands and turning to address the other patrons he yells,

"It is Loin Cloth Wednesday! I will buy a round for anyone that dares to join me!"

OOC: It is still Wednesday for another hour where I live. I just remembered that I wanted Loin cloth Wednesday to be a thing and so it shall be.

Be Legendary!

Papaver wrote:

So if you tell me that you need a recording of someone "enjoying" him/herself to a potato grown in a pedestrian zone while wearing a dolphin costume all the while a dominatrix tells him/she that his/her math homework needs to be done I'm gonna tell you that it's:

A) oddly specific
B) gonna take a little more research time.

What?

C) A Southpark episode

It has Mr. Garrison written all over it :)

I am going to be recording video for the blog this afternoon at 4pm our time and I won't be leaving work until it's been finalized. Due to the way we're running the web site it may not be published live until tomorrow. That will depend on when I get done editing.

Nice, we get a video! I have really been enjoying the video blogs so far :)

Especially since all we have right now is forum politics and ego wars.

My ego war is bigger than your ego war.

Fidelis *Bringslite* wrote:

Maybe what we need is: 3 months into EE a big "Fair" with competitions in multiple things. Categories to be determined by what is available and measurable at that time. Have some fun. Burn off some of this venom so that we don't carry it longer than we have to.

I propose a dunking stool be set up, since so many people seem to need a good coolin' off.

You mean that fun device that has a person sitting above a pool of water and they get dropped in when someone with good aim hits a target with a ball?

Yes, that is a must.

Thanks for sharing your stories folks!

Lets get some more on here :)

Best and worst night of my life was when a female Orc came rampaging through my camp.

I am hoping for mountains. I want to craft weapons and having metal nearby would be great.

I volunteer to protect any Herald traveling through Stone Bear Clan territory. I won't be playing a Bard, but I will be happy to help anyone that is actively doing something this awesome in PFO.

This actually sounds like a fun "game" some of the Stone Bear Clan might have to try if they come upon a fight. Like tag, but not. Just run around the fighters trying not to get hit while waiting for one to drop then dive in and out while attempting to loot the body. The one who comes away with the best stuff wins and dying is an auto forfeit. XD

Obviously not as common practice but it could be entertaining one day.

Hmm, gives me the idea that I might be able to come up with various "games" for members to consider playing instead of just all out fighting when they come across a group of strangers.

How messed up would it be to be in the middle of a fight for your life and suddenly a group of barbarians show up and start dancing around you and your enemy waiting for one of you to fall?

I am in full support of this idea. I hope that there is a /dance emote in the game so that I can literally dance around the people fighting.