In terms of the nation building, I mean?
Where will settlements/villages/cities/kingdoms lay, geographically, in relation to each other? How will they lay geographically in relation to the rest of the world? How will they interact? How will people pledge allegiance to once city or another? How will management of that city work?
Can merchant PCs hire NPCs to sell their goods for them?
The WORLD will be inspired by Pathfinder - how much will the gameplay?
Will the world be inspired by the Pathfinder Core Rules, or everything (including peripherals, additional books, campaign settings, etc.)?
How can I sign up to beta test?
How will scripted encounters work in randomly generated or player-generated locations?
How much will gameplay be SKILL based? By that I mean... In games like WoW, if you have two equally-built characters, but one character has the superior equipment, that character will win fights 9 times out of 10. Or, if you have one higher level character fighting a lower level character, that character will almost NEVER win. Will it be possible for lower-leveled players to beat higher-leveled players through superior mastery of gameplay? Through strategy and tactics?
SOME MMOs tote how much variety and how many character building options they have, when really most of the different characters are just slightly tweaked versions of the same four options with a modicum of choice in abilities (which again are usually very similar). Can we expect the same level of variety in options in PFO as we have in Pathfinder?
I know many of the answers to my questions aren't available yet, but these are just some things that have been on my mind that I thought I'd post here. Even if answers aren't available, they could still proc interesting discussion or speculation.
I'll post more questions as I think of them.
Goblin Squad Member
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It's all pre-alpha but, there is some background reading to tie those questions into at: Goblinworks Blog
PvE (Mobs, Themepark content, dungeons): For "scripted events" there's some really interesting PvE topics concerning both intensity of mobs regarding being attracted to resource gathering by players as well as dungeon spawning, locating and locking for and the danger these will pose to players depending on location. ~ Interaction of this with player-driven content eg resource gathering requires NPC's to go to a "dig" while players run the site etc.
In terms of the skills, some of the GW team have made some interesting comments, conceptually it appears some interesting scenarios are possible namely a good spread of possibilities when 2 differently matched players come into combat with each other depending on different factors. ~ It's not the level+gear = wipe syndrome :) ie skill should be a combat factor of significance.
They are avoiding beta discussion until they secure investment/ developement makes it possible to start discussing this in ernest.
Don't know how that fits in with the Pathfinder design. But there is commentary on transition between PF-RPG and PFO-MMO(RPG)
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Goblin Squad Member
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The WORLD will be inspired by Pathfinder - how much will the gameplay?Will the world be inspired by the Pathfinder Core Rules, or everything (including peripherals, additional books, campaign settings, etc.)?
How can I sign up to beta test?
How will scripted encounters work in randomly generated or player-generated locations?
Well as far as getting in on the beta test, little is known beyond keeping your eyes peeled on the forums for possible activities you can do to raise your chances, and donate enough to the kickstarter to join the goblin squad (none of this is guaranteed ways in, but they are all things that will increase your chances and probably bump you up in the priority list, with the game starting at 4500 slots, the more you do the better.)
The only refference to "scripted encounters" so far in the blogs and such, is modules which are going to be accessed from some sort of central hub of some kind, basically those are the only scripted content. The majority of the game that the blogs and developer comments have focused on, is more on dynamic changing events. IE dungeons will most likely be randomly generated, and vanish for good once cleared. I doubt there will be much if any scripted content outside of the modules area.
Now as far as the rules, considering character progression being a skills system that levels up in real time, rather than a traditional level based system. And the implications from the developers that the power difference between someone with the equivelent of 10 levels, will not be imposibly weaker then one who has the equivelent of 30 levels, I believe it is safe to say that mechanics and gameplay wise, the game is going to be drastically different from the pathfinder tabletop game. As it should IMO, as the tabletop game was not designed for handling things like PVP as a major part of gameplay, nor was it made to handle level 20's and 10's working towards the same goals at the same time etc...
Now setting wise, goblinworks is teaming up very closely with paizo to carry over many major elements of the campaign setting. However they did also specifically pick an area of the river kingdoms that is more or less an empty canvas within the Golorean storyline to allow themselves significant amounts of freedom in designing story, but they are keeping several known Golorean factions within the game.
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Goblin Squad Member
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All of your questions can be answered in three ways:
1. Read ALL the blog entries
2. Read ALL the blot entry post discussions(1 for each blog)
3. Go to Ryan D's profile and look at all of his posts.
Vic and Mark also have some information, but Ryan is the most active in discussions with us.
All of the information we can give you comes from those sources. If you cant find an answer and the question is specific to a blog's topic, it is best asked in that blog's forum thread where it is most likely to get an answer from Ryan, or in another thread he has already commented in.
The fourth way:
4. Make a new thread
This will not receive much attention, I know I'm not the only person that doesn't want to go look up references and answer questions that have already been answered. Also you will get a lot more opinion and personal expectations leaking into some answers you do receive, and then those leak into what people think is actually happening and then all hell breaks loose and we can't tell what is actually going to be in the game or not.
Chief Technical Officer
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Will the world be inspired by the Pathfinder Core Rules, or everything (including peripherals, additional books, campaign settings, etc.)?
A lot of people, upon first hearing of Pathfinder Online, come up with the idea that it's a video game translation of the RPG, using some of our world stuff, but thinking that way will lead you to make a lot of incorrect assumptions.
Instead, try to think of the Pathfinder campaign setting as a real world, and then think of the RPG as a way to map that world in game terms. For example, the world of Pathfinder has orcs, who are generally stronger than humans. The Pathfinder RPG provides rules that quantify orcs and humans and their relative strengths so that you can interact with that world at your gaming table... but the RPG rules themselves don't represent the *only* way to quantify or define those things. Pathfinder Online will have orcs that are generally stronger than humans, and it will quantify that so that you can interact with that world online... though the exact way that it's quantified may be similar to or different from the way it's quantified on the tabletop.
The Pathfinder RPG gives you materials you need to become immersed in the Pathfinder campaign setting at the gaming table. Pathfinder Online gives you materials you need to become immersed in the Pathfinder campaign setting in an MMO. Same setting, different tools.
Ultimately, Pathfinder Online is therefore inspired *more* by the setting material than by the rules.
And yes, the Kingmaker AP is providing a lot of inspiration here.
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Goblin Squad Member
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So take the end result/effect of the RPG rules with the Golarian and Kingmaker modifications and that is the same intended result/effect you are aiming for with the MMO. You may take different paths/methods to get there, but the end result is still intended to be the same. For example, RPG Orcs are stronger because of a STR score modifier of +2 but the MMO mechanics being different, an Orc may have a STR score of X+25 and an increase in HP. The effect in the MMO is the same as in the RPG, you just do different things to achieve it because the mechanics aren't the same. Is this correct?
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Chief Technical Officer
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So take the end result/effect of the RPG rules with the Golarian and Kingmaker modifications and that is the same intended result/effect you are aiming for with the MMO. You may take different paths/methods to get there, but the end result is still intended to be the same. For example, RPG Orcs are stronger because of a STR score modifier of +2 but the MMO mechanics being different, an Orc may have a STR score of X+25 and an increase in HP. The effect in the MMO is the same as in the RPG, you just do different things to achieve it because the mechanics aren't the same. Is this correct?
In essence, that's pretty much the goal, yes.
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Chief Technical Officer
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And yes, the Kingmaker AP is providing a lot of inspiration here.
I should clarify that a bit... the Kingmaker AP is providing thematic inspiration in that we're giving you a sandbox and some stuff to do, with the general idea that you'll be creating your own civilization in a largely uncivilized land. But Pathfinder Online is not an adaptation of the Kingmaker storyline.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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And yes, the Kingmaker AP is providing a lot of inspiration here.I should clarify that a bit... the Kingmaker AP is providing thematic inspiration, in that we're giving you a sandbox and some stuff to do, with the general idea that you'll be creating your own civilization in a largely uncivilized land. But Pathfinder Online is not an adaptation of the Kingmaker storyline.
Man, how I love running Kingmaker, ESPECIALY the first two books of the AP. I understand this won't be the AP Online, but thrilled about how it will inspire the theme of this game!
Wow, I lost track of this topic! I just wanted to come back here and say "thanks" to everyone for providing a bunch of great input - especially you, Vic Wertz!
I am getting more excited for this project by the day.