Gaulin wrote:
Thanks and I agree (obviously) on all three ideas. That's why I was suggesting a "Twisted Ribbon" style melding or possibly even a biotech augmentation that you have to combine with an armor to meld biologically with it to get both the advantages and disadvantages. Armor is definitely more than just an AC bonus and I apparently didn't make that point clear in my first point as well as I thought I did.
Taja the Barbarian wrote: The flavor you are looking seems antithetical to the game's core 'you need to replace your armor every couple of levels' design, so I wouldn't hold my breath while waiting for this option if I were you. Out of curiosity, how would this be any more antithetical to the game's core than Twisted Ribbon weapons, solarian weapons (melee and ranged), or attack augmentations like boneblades? They all can't be removed and all are either can be upgraded whether by purchase or leveling up. I was simply asking about a similar mechanic for armor where you get the benefits of the armor just like worn armor (not just AC bonuses like the examples given here but also the environmental effects as well as the downsides like penalties to movement and skill checks). You'd still want to upgrade it periodically just like the other equipment that become part of your character whether via class or equipment. I would agree though that I shouldn't hold my breath given the almost unanimous response of Ni to the idea in the thread though. :)
Leon Aquilla wrote: Evolutionist is coming out in Interstellar Species. Thanks! Looking forward to seeing that one on my FLGS shelves then. Quote:
I'd probably categorize most good requests as "exact" since the petitioner demonstrates that they know what they want but I disagree that it would take an unreasonable amount of page real estate. It could be accomplished by a single paragraph using the existing armor manufacturer template for both the fluff and crunch combined. Regardless, I completely agree that it can be houseruled by a GM as well but so could almost any of the mechanics like feats, upgrades, augmentations, and gear that don't require a full class with options to create... but they still come out despite that. :)
Leon Aquilla wrote:
Thanks. I was aware of most but not all of those. Are any of them literally bonded phsyically/biologically to the user or all just worn/piloted? I was referring more to the former so that they can't be forceably removed any more than a natural weapon could be. Hopefully something like that is in the book the evolutionist is coming out in. Has Paizo announced which book that will be? As I mentioned above, I've been a bit out of the loop and only peripherally following developments since I don't currently have a group (just got the evolutionist playtest materials to look at today prior to posting for example).
I haven't kept up with the latest and greatest in Starfinder after my previous group drifted apart but I was curious if organic bio-armor has made it into the game? One of my original character builds was a character that didn't depend on equipment where possible and the game has made great strides to improve natural weapons, barathu weapons, add classes with innate weapons/attacks (like Solarian), and various body morphs (like the geneturge mystic and upcoming evolutionist)... but I don't think I've seen a way to incorporate living armor INTO the character as opposed to just wearing it. I've seen obviously bio-organic and class abilities that give you a token +1 or +2 to AC but I'm more referring to the twisted ribbon manufacturer for armor where the armor melds with your form and can't be removed (other than obviously a long process when you level up) but still otherwise provides the abilities and disadvantages it normally would (EAC/KAC bonus, environmental protections, upgrades, etc). Have I missed this option? If not, am I the only one interested in such a variant? So far, I've only been able to use necrografts for environmental functions and basically just skip the other features of armor.
I know it sucks and I am in no way excusing any of the original corporate participants in that kickstarter. Also, Archon has done VERY sketchy stuff in the past to their own crowdfunding customers (look up the AVP kickstarter disaster on independent forums for details since Archon/Prodos literally DMCA'ed/scuttled their own kickstarter page to hide the details) but this isn't one of them. No one here is owed anything from Archon and $13 for 32 minis (or multiples there of) is a good deal. You'll never get your money back just like my Robotech Tactics kickstarter wave 2 money/product is gone forever but you'll be able to sell what you get for more than $0.50 a mini that you're paying now if you want to ulitmately make some money back or have anything to show for it. It's icing on a poop cake but sweet nonetheless. TL:DR; It sucks no matter what. This will make it suck less for some (but definitely not all) people.
Not technically an Archon announcement but rather Starfinder minis and it seemed silly to start another thread for it rather than just posting it here. Wizkid's next batch of "deep cuts" unpainted Starfinder minis was announced a couple days ago. Looks like a Lashunta two pack and a dragonkin (yes, you read that correctly!). https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/50023/wizkids-drops-more-pathfinder-sta rfinder-deep-cuts
I wouldn't sweat it for typical combat encounters unless the players are using full auto or weapons that have five or less shots before needing reloads. It's a nice change of pace to do an extended low resource combat every once in a while but I would warn them at the beginning to meticulously track ammo if that's not what normally happens. Of course, you have to cherry pick the enemy type so that they don't drop extra clips themselves of course because that would render the whole thing moot once the first person gets into close combat.
FWIW, some more figs got released on Archon/Prodos' webstore. They don't have a blog news entry but the last Starfinder one from a year ago was wave three and I know there was another way inbetween (the one with Epic Obozaya) so possibly wave 5? https://archon-studio.com/shop/23-starfinder Two more vesk (yay!) and a human.
It may sound silly but I tend to make characters up based on cool art and/or figures I find (or buy in the latter case) and I have one that seems custom made for a Vanguard (heavy armor and big shield). What roles can a vanguard fill in a party besides the obvious tank? I tend to play combat casters because I enjoy for the variety of having both straightforward attacks to choose from as well as off the wall spells but I'm not sure I'll get that with the vanguard. I didn't play a solarian despite liking the look of them for the same reason as I didn't feel there was enough variety. Coming off of playing a barbarian in D&D, I'd prefer to avoid another rinse/lather/repeat playstyle character. Sincerely, Vinnie the "Tank but not just a Tank" Vanguard
Hey folks, I saw the wiki was updated with Tech Revolution and was wondering if the intent of entropic shot was to still allow entropic strike in melee as a limited option. https://www.aonsrd.com/AltClassFeatures.aspx?ID=37 https://www.aonsrd.com/Classes.aspx?ItemName=Vanguard The last sentence in the rule says it modifies instead of replaces strike and the bulk of the rules use permissive optional words like "can" instead of "must" in the first paragraph for new uses while the second paragraph lists specific abilities that are lost/replaced. The closest analog to this would be the solarian manifestation but thatbone specifically says you pick one and not the others (so flare instead of weapon or armor).
I'm not complaining but it didn't stop them way back in a Society adventure I think when they came out with a different gobbo powered armor. Regardless, I'm glad it's here and available for low level powered armor character builds. I wouldn't personally adopt the rule across all powered armor sets but rather only low level ones under the level gate of the feat (of which there are only a few). I wouldn't be opposed to a rule for others but I don't necessarily think it is needed.
Xenocrat wrote: A goblin NPC wearing a salvage chassis is illustrated in the adventure - the gear itself is not. Thanks! Is it the goblin from the Roll20 marketplace entry for Junker's under their sample images? Third from the left/start. https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.d20.io/marketplace/1939458/08GG1iyB2Dq8AQdVb MynAQ/med.jpg https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/12045/starfinder-adventure-jun kers-delight That's smaller than I was expecting but in a good way since I hoped to use it for a medium sized creature as a counts as. edit: it looks like the forum software doesn't allow links so it inserted a space in the word junk that you'd have to remove to get the working link.
Wesrolter wrote: I think its specific to that set of armour rather then Power armour in general. No mention that I have seen in Tech Revolution and from the wording on the site, it sounds like it is a special property of that armour Thanks for the reply. I was hoping it was maybe a prelude to a general change but I'll take a low level starting gear capable power armor any way I can! Do they have a pic of it? Is it against the rules of this forum to post pics from books? I'm curious if it's a sort of 40k ork contraption or something completely different.
Is this a specific change for this one armor in Junker's Delight or is this more of a general rules change in the recent Tech Revolution book? https://www.aonsrd.com/PoweredArmor.aspx?ItemName=Salvage%20Chassis " A character who is proficient in heavy armor is considered proficient with a salvage chassis. A character with proficiency in powered armor from some other source—such as a feat or class feature—gains an additional benefit while wearing a salvage chassis;" My group hasn't played in over a year at this point so I haven't really been keeping up with the more recent rule books and adventures. I went to the wiki to see what was new and found that blurb under the new level 2 powered armor. I personally like the idea of powered armor being possible at the lowest levels (instead of the current 5th level entry gate for PCs) with an added benefit/cherry on the top for those officially trained in it. I'm a bit biased though because I'm a fan of power armor characters in scifi RPGs (and even scifa like this on!) but it never was a possible starting loadout except with a GM handwave. I'd even be fine with a further nerfed version if folks are worried about game balance (like a bonus to strength up to the max listed instead of autogranting the max) for these hybrid heavy/powered armors. Is there a pic in the book to show what this looks like officially? I've got some ideas floating around from other popular scifi properties like mega-armored 40k orks but was curious to see what other possible counts as might work.
Jeff Alvarez wrote:
Thanks for the honest and quick response even if it's not the answer I was hoping for.
Steel_Wind wrote:
I'm going to agree with that first part but unfortunately likely for the opposite reason you said it. The opinions that might be most valuable to the company are those of the players who either stopped or never started playing and you're less likely to find them posting in a timely fashion here unless they're also engaged with PF. I only come here every once in a while to see if there is an update on the miniatures debacle and haven't bothered to log in for a while since I don't need to do that just to check a single thread for "no news" weekly updates. What turned me off of Starfinder? There were alot of reasons honestly and they're likely to be hotly debated as the complete opposite preference is perfectly valid as well. I was drawn in at first by my positive (albeit short) experiences with PF1 during the Dark Times (D&D 4e) and the consistently good art. As a long time player of 3.x, I was obviously familiar with the basis for the heavily modified rules but skeptical that they'd work well in a scifi setting. To Paizo's credit, they never pretended that this was scifi but rather science fantasy so they in no way mislead me; I simply hoped that the mashup would have turned out better in practice than I felt it did. Additionally, I wasn't a fan of this being a future version of the Pathfinder setting though I fully understand why they'd want to mesh the two together. In my case, I simply would have preferred a dedicated scifi game where firing a futuristic space laser was mechanically different than letting loose an arrow from a bow and were the rich background of fantasy dwarves, elves, and orcs had nothing to do with adventures in space. The game seemed to dip its toes into each familiar niche of the genre but never seemed to fully jump in. There was hacking... but it was basic. There was space combat... but it felt like a completely different game and (for my mystic character) usually amounted to just an assist role for someone else's shot as I either didn't meet any of the criteria to be good for a specific role or my stats weren't good for just manning a secondary gun. I liked the new races and classes but the traditional fantasy races felt crammed in for me and brought down that aspect of the game. I could see the care and effort put into this (unlike say Palladium's Rifts which felt like it was cobbled together on sequential all nighters across multiple decades the nights before each book was due at the printers) but it just didn't gel for me. It didn't feel like it did particularly any of the scifi elements well because it was trying too hard to do everything at once; it was truly the jack of all trades, master of none. And then there is the ongoing mess of the Ninja Division miniatures campaign. Paizo isn't directly responsible for that but indirectly I don't feel they both thought it through initially (the warning signs were absolutely there for ND to screw it up royally) and didn't handle the aftermath well either whether due to contractual non-disparagement reasons or simply "not my problem" thinking. Well, it was and continues to be their problem. That's my two cents. As I said before, I fully expect others to disagree as I'm sure that some of my personal bugbears with the game/system are reasons others actually were attracted to it... but I figured I'd mention them in case it helps to get another perspective. I can't comment as to whether the game is actually less popular as frankly I've stopped following it online (except for a foray to the forums for a few seconds every week or two) or purchasing the products. I can say though that when I was excited about playing the game (and did play for about a year) despite my misgivings that outside of this forum my attempts to generate interest with the general gaming public didn't garner much response. YMMV.
Ghost725, I don't know you but I've repeatedly posted in support of you FWIW... but he publicly apologized and corrected the mistake. Yes, you can't take the pee out of the proverbial pool but better late then never. I'm not saying that you have to accept the apology as that's entirely your personal choice but I'm not sure what you expect to achieve with the confrontational parts of the post above other than vent and apparently inevitably get reported.
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
So the justification is that two wrongs make a right? How very 2020 of you. Unless it was the same poster who the president addressed (and you have verifiable proof of it), it has no bearing on what happened most recently in this thread. Additionally, call me old fashioned but I hold highly paid company executives to a higher standard than random internet pundits of indeterminate age. YMMV.
This thread has certainly taken a turn for the worse. If a company executive think that posts are so egregious then warn/ban the poster as per your own existing rules instead of resorting to quasi-doxxing and veiled threats. Just keep in mind that you're likely treating your own customers who cummulatively lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in a harsher fashion than you are the company that took the money.
I appreciate the update even if there is no news. You *WILL* get some flak from some (and honestly for good cummulative reason) for coming in here without tangible progress but I think it is the right thing to do both for the brand and the company. Pazio screwed up in choosing ND and the company and especially your customers paid dearly for that choice (customers in actual lost money and Paizo with potential earnings lost). Posting here on a regular basis is the right thing to do and the first step in earning back some (definitely not all but simply some) of the trust that disappeared along with all the funds put into ND's account.
TheHandsomeDan wrote: In all reality, the true colors were WELL known before the Starfinder KS campaign launched. Within minutes of launch, they were being swarmed with users from previous campaigns warning others about ND/SPM's history of lies/delays/failures. Agreed and I referenced that in the sentence just before your quote started. There is a difference between "showing" and "knowing" though. kadance wrote: There is a reply to Lindon's post. Hopefully, it is clear. Thanks and I appreciate it.
Sorry to keep multiposting but it wouldn't let me edit the prior post as some time limit was reached. It might be a good idea for one of the backers to correct Lindon over in the kickstarter comments as he or she is claiming that "Apparently Archon Studios bought the Starfinder miniatures licence from ND for $150k" when that's clearly not what they posted. There is enough misinformation and unrealistic expectations (exacerbated by a lack of timely communication from both Archon and Paizo) floating around and that post only makes it worse.
Yoshua wrote:
And, FWIW in reference to your earlier post response, I think both those are reasonable responses by customers. I got screwed over in ND's Robotech project; in that case, I personally consider the simple majority of blame to be on Palladium but given ND's ongoing history of failures that they also played a significant part. I pinky swore that I'd post an accurate and honest warning to potential customers once for each dollar of product promised that I didn't receive when I see their names mentioned in regard to other projects. I'm still probably over 100 posts away from my stated goal by my estimate but at least in my case I got half my rewards (albeit in a finicky, unnecessarily complicated, and inferior way). Regardless, ND's history should have been a red flag for Paizo to put additional safeguards but they didn't. I fortunately found out about the Starfinder minis after the initial funding ended but I was seriously considering becoming a late pledge after the fact; ultimately, it was the involvement of ND (who wasn't yet showing their true colors on Starfinder) and my experience with Robotech that convinced me to instead just wait for the project to potentially hit the shelves or to buy out a pledge on the secondary market once it delivered. I'm glad that I was able to avoid this minefield unlike my first experience with crowdfunding.
PapaYaroo wrote:
Quoted for posterity just in case Starfinder goblins get to it. I hope this clears up some misconceptions about what is "owed" to backers by Archon. Archon's actions were, for years, reprehensible towards their customers under their Prodos banner (that they largely subsequently ran away from both financially for future projects and physically back out of the UK) but they're frankly the best and more importanly ONLY hope for Starfinder kickstarter backers. They're not going to run their own company into the ground to fulfill someone else's promises though when that's not what they're required to do. I do think that they've proven they're willing to help backers at minimal cost to themselves (i.e. a few pennies material cost for a plastic sprue punched out during an existing production run). Ninja Division has a history of long and ongoing delayed or failed projects and it's unrealistic to think that they'll have the money set aside to ship out to backers waves 1-6 if and when Archon ships it to them. Again, your only realistic hope to receive ANYTHING for your $200 average pledge is to kick in another $20 in shipping and one additional purchase direct from Archon... and even now that option is delayed/limited as per Archon's post above referencing the lack of affordable shipping costs. I've said it before and I'll say it again... the blame for THIS project is squarely on the doorstep of ND for failing to produce the project as promised and, to a lesser extent, for Paizo for knowing that ND had a public history of doing that at the time of the crowdfunding and not taking the proper precautions (like keeping the funds in escrow and dispersing it as needed for milestones met) to protect their own customers and their own IP. Could that have meant that ND didn't agree and they'd have to settle for another company offering a much smaller project scope? Sure... but backers wouldn't have been left with a multihundred dollar hole in their wallets.
I strongly suspect there are multiple issues at play but that's just conjecture on my part. I frequent several minis specific forums and European boutique minis companies have had ALOT of problems with delayed shipments with non-essential international shipping closing down for weeks to months at a time and then having to deal with backlog. People are just now reporting getting shipments confirmed by postal services as received back in march and arriving in mid to late August. Then there is the issue of whether or not Archon actually sent out waves to those who didn't pay to order other items from their catalog. The waves themselves are running significantly behind with them only being on wave 3 when they should be IIRC at over 6 now (wasn't it initially monthly?). Backers are unfortunately at their discretion and they're not going to run their company into the ground for someone else's mistakes. Heck, they didn't want to make good on their own mistakes with the AVP kickstarter that didn't deliver full pledges to roughly half the backers despite the products being on the market for years until they were on the cusp of ending their license and would have been forced to destroy the remaining product. If there is someone to blame, it's definitely ND and to a lesser extent Paizo for not having enough failsafes/oversight in their contract to prevent the debacle in the first place. I fully admit that they may not have been in a position to demand them but that doesn't help backers either. At this point, unless you feel like ordering something else from Archon, you should consider the amount pledged as a loss and anything you might possibly get in the future as a bonus. Archon is IMO disincentivized from releasing too much now that there is a competing minis line in roughly the same scale for the same game from a bigger company. I know I'll probably get anger directed at me from backers but you deserve to hear what is likely the truth even if it hurts. I've been there as a backer of a massively blundered minis project and I know how it sucky it feels.
I think the end of this project will likely be due to the competing Wizkids prepainted minis hitting the market after Archon/Prodos lost 6+ months of potential sales due to Covid. I think we'll still see one more wave but I'll be shocked if anything is announced after a potential wave 4 that is likely already in development. YMMV. And, yes, it sucks for backers and Ninja Division really screwed over their customers/the Starfinder fanbase.
Nefreet wrote:
LOL, that's some serious Goldilocks and the Three Bears game design there. :) Thanks for letting me know about the others as I had focused on fly specifically in my own search before posting.
If you're using a flying movement mode, can you use the run action? By RAW, I don't see any mention of it under the flying special movement mode nor under the acrobatics skill description that lists advanced flight options so from a strict rules reading I'd say no. The flight rules only reference using move actions to fly and running is a full action so no. Obviously the literal reading of "running" invokes the idea of a land speed using legs but, from a game design perspective, it's also a faster movement mode option at the expense of other things (actions, AOO, penalties, etc). Assuming that I didn't miss any rules snippets elsewhere, should it be available as an option under the acrobatics skill as a house rule?
FWIW, they said on facebook that they had reduced capacity due to the postal shutdown in Poland and then later announced that they switched over to manufacturing facemasks and PPE for domestic use for the time being. It's frustrating but until the pandemic is over tabletop gaming production takes a backseat to other stuff.
Reductio ad absurdum at its finest. I understand what you're going for but no need; there will always be ways to abuse rules to the extreme but that's not what I'm asking about. How do you carry all that even with L bulk? Will you spend 10 rounds each combat setting up the turrets? Why not just instead run a party of mystic that charm local thugs before each combat with all their spells to do their dirty work instead. It doesn't even cost any credits! Sure some will make the save due to the life saving bonus but you just move onto the next one to cast it on instead! The absurd rabbit hole runs deep and the kind of stuff that you're referring to is exactly why you have a GM there to curb it if he or she has any sense. Do you think a single AI computer on a player character that can use a small selection of social skills at a bonus typically less than half that of a dedicated PC who frequently uses that skill is broken?
If you have an AI computer on your character (like a mechanic with that custom rig option/upgrade at 7th level), does it gets its own action? From my reading of the rules (copy pasted below), you could order the AI to perform an action with a free action involving the limited set of skills listed (like feint with bluff or demoralize with intimidate). Opinions? It's not particularly powerful and the bonus is paltry compared to what a character could get but it seems like a flavorful option. I'm not playing a mechanic at the moment but was coming up with a build for fun. I figured the mechanic would have a holographic sashimono as well as the commlink for the AI to communicate with others for the purposes of the skills. Ideas? CRB pg. 216 "The primary advantage of an artificial personality is that an authorized user can operate the computer by giving simple spoken or typed commands in plain language and receive information from the computer the same way. *flavor text removed* Artificial personalities are sophisticated enough that the computer can attempt Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks with a total bonus equal to 2 × its tier. "
RJGrady wrote: Weapon Specialization is such a heavy, heavy penalty for multiclassing. And it seems like it was done on purpose: they could have just had characters add their level to damage. Eoxian poster confirmed! It's not that heavy of a penalty to take a one level dip into soldier and one feat for versatile specialization to get access to pretty much all weapons and armor (sans Powered) as well as a front loaded fighting style like blitz or wrathful warrior IMO but that obviously depends on your build. I considered doing that for my melee warpriest mystic but the options in subsequent books after the core one have mainly scratched that itch for me without having to sacrifice levels of spellcasting that I use as a backup to hacking at things with my greataxe. YMMV.
That's exactly what my mystic character wanted to hear if someone confirms it! I agree though that it's a bit much for a level 1 especially compared to existing spells. Independent to that argument though is the possibility that DR5 isn't worthy of a 3rd level spell slot either which compounds how good this spell feels. Ymmv.
technarken wrote: How about maybe don't make promises until you know you can keep them, or maybe make gaining control of the line of communication so you can keep people in the loop a priority? Archon voluntarily took on this task, likely as part of getting the IP license. Am I out of line for having a expectation of mere competence here, as someone who has literally hundreds sunk into this? Staying quiet doesn't work either because then we complain that we're out of the loop and that there is no progress. I fully agree with not making promises that you can't or don't feel like keeping though but that ship has sailed years ago for Archon. One of my first posts on this forum (not that I have too many outside this thread) was to warn people not to get their hopes up too high with the announcement that Archon/Prodos were taking over for Ninja Division due to my following their AVP debacle and the aftermath. I don't think you're out of line at all and I've been there myself with another project (the first I ever backed and the reason I don't back projects anymore). I'm simply trying to post realistic expectations/answers to questions like the one you posed. With them already being behind on their "monthly" miniature releases, my opinion is that you shouldn't expect a free catchup shipment until probably the end of the year at best. YMMV.
technarken wrote: Will we be getting the shipment now that we're 6 months in as promised, or is the chain of falsehood getting another link? I'd be shocked if that were the case. IIRC the initial announcement was that they'd be doing monthly releases and they're obviously behind on that already. With them footing the bill for shipping, it doesn't make financial sense for them to ship out stuff to backers entirely on their own dime. I'm not defending ND's horrible handling of the project but backers are unfortunately at the largesse of Archon and in no position to demand anything. Getting anything ever at this point is a win due to the initial incompetence surrounding this project and it has to be worth it for Archon to do so as they have their own history of treating their AVP backers and project with disdain when it suits them.
Thanks for posting that. I'm not a backer but would ask that you consider selling the KS exclusive minis as well. The Obozaya KS exclusive mini is pretty epic (pun intended) and one of the best designs in the entire series that Ninja Division came up with. I understand why some backers would be opposed to offering it but I just figured I'd ask so that I could throw some money your way. Other than that personal favorite of mine, I'd recommend going with Starfinder specific (like a Formian warrior) rather than scifi generic (like Space Dwarf soldier) minis. Formians, skittermanders, akatas, etc are my personal recommendation that I think Starfinder players might find most interesting.
HammerJack wrote: It's in the middle of the description of the Extra Manifestation alternate class feature. What I posted is a direct quote that I didn't bother to tag as such. Thanks again. Looking at the wiki, it absolutely says that for the alternate class feature. I don't think that carries over to the cross class mystic with the epiphany that grants a solar weapon though as it doesn't refer to that but instead just grants a solar weapon. In that case, I'd personally say you have to choose which of the two (assuming the example of a mystic/solarian) you turn your mote into. I actually prefer the single class version of the same ability being a bit better in that regard even if you have to wait for it.
HammerJack wrote: You can have only one manifestation active at a time unless you are fully attuned (graviton or photon), in which case you can use two manifestations at once. Thanks for the clarification. For the life of me, I can't find that in any of the books. I don't know if I just don't have the correct one or if my search-fu is just that weak but I'd appreciate it if you could let me know where that is.
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