Goblin Squad Member
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Regarding the Server Performance goals for EE: 2,000 logged in clients, and 100 characters active in a hex. What are your *long*term*, post-EE launch goals? One of the features that is so exciting is formation combat - and it would be deflating if we could only expect to have two fifty toon armies before the server started booting us off.
Thanks for the updates!
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CEO, Goblinworks
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All the data I have ever seen is that when a sandbox MMO is working, it's peak concurrency is about 20% of active players. So that goal will remain pretty central to our plans.
We know that we need to create formation combat in the mid-term timeframe because it lets us substantially increase the density of characters in a hex. When a formation is used we can reduce a lot of network and graphic overhead. The trick is going to be managing things like marshaling (how do we handle having a lot of characters enter a hex in order to join a unit) and lack of cohesion - either intentional or unintentional. We don't want breaking up a formation to be a rewarding tactic in terms of injecting lag or latency in the middle of a battle. So its a huge design and engineering challenge.
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Goblin Squad Member
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How does the changes to destiny twin work when you are logged into the character that is selected? Suppose I have only two characters: A and B. Under the system as I understood it before the changes. A and B would both get experience regardless of which was played assuming they were twinned. With the new changes, and supposing B is selected as the twin. When character A is played, B gets experience right? But what happens with I log into B, does it just not give any character experience or does it give to the last non-twin character logged in?
Don't forget that logging into a character and selecting a character to receive XP are two different things. If you have A and B right now, and you select A to gain XP, you can still log into B.
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Goblin Squad Member
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How does the changes to destiny twin work when you are logged into the character that is selected?
I read it as an account-level accounting. If you have a paid account, your permanently-designated Twin gets experience, alongside whichever character you've currently aimed your pipe toward.
You'll leave the pipe on another character while you play the Twin. You'll never need to point the pipe at that one.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The vast majority of your player base is telling you that your product is FAR from MVP and needs months of work.
Nope. The same 17 people are telling them that over, and over, and over, and over, and over ad nauseum. The vast majority may believe that, but they are telling them no such thing.
Some other people are telling them it's not quite ready, but the blog covered those.
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Goblin Squad Member
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They are speaking by their abandonment of the game.The vast majority of your player base is telling you that your product is FAR from MVP and needs months of work.Nope. The same 17 people are telling them that over, and over, and over, and over, and over ad nauseum. The vast majority may believe that, but they are telling them no such thing.
Some other people are telling them it's not quite ready, but the blog covered those.
Nope. 1) Abandoning is not telling the developers anything specific. 2) You have no idea how many people have abandoned the game, vs decided to wait a while vs. are chomping at the bit to get started.
If you wish to make a specific claim about what "The vast majority of your player base is telling you" you can't presume to interpret what people who don't speak are saying. People abandon things online for uncountable reasons. You don't get to decide that means they are saying it is "FAR from MVP"
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Goblin Squad Member
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So sayeth the echo-chamber...
That's OK though, pretty sure most folks understand.
What we have is 17 people who want the world to believe they speak for everyone who is silent, and that all the voices that disagree with them are an echo chamber
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Goblin Squad Member
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What we have is 17 people who want the world to believe they speak for everyone who is silent, and that all the voices that disagree with them are an echo chamberSo sayeth the echo-chamber...
That's OK though, pretty sure most folks understand.
Like I said above (I know you posted while I edited).. come back a month after EE launch and let's see who was right.
We can do so if it makes you feel better, but it won't help. I don't think any judgement can be made until the far larger number of people who are waiting for open enrollment.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Considering I want my main to be a gnome, will I be able to make my main some other race and mark as a twin and then respec once gnome is available? Or since the choice is permament is it better to wait til gnomes are available?
You don't get a full skills respec, but I believe you get one race change, per character, to a *new* race.
So if you start your character as elf, dwarf, or human, you can change to gnome when that's available; it may be a limited time that you can change. You can't change your elf character to a human or dwarf later, because those characters were already an option when you made the character.
I think you'd be fine to start the character as a different race but a gnomish name, and change race when that's available.
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Goblin Squad Member
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How does the changes to destiny twin work when you are logged into the character that is selected?I read it as an account-level accounting. If you have a paid account, your permanently-designated Twin gets experience, alongside whichever character you've currently aimed your pipe toward.
You'll leave the pipe on another character while you play the Twin. You'll never need to point the pipe at that one.
Awesome. That's what I was hoping. Sounds like it would be best to actually have the "twin" be the main character.
Considering I want my main to be a gnome, will I be able to make my main some other race and mark as a twin and then respec once gnome is available? Or since the choice is permament is it better to wait til gnomes are available?
I agree, setting your main character as the twin might be the best bet.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Considering I want my main to be a gnome, will I be able to make my main some other race and mark as a twin and then respec once gnome is available? Or since the choice is permament is it better to wait til gnomes are available?You don't get a full skills respec, but I believe you get one race change, per character, to a *new* race.
So if you start your character as elf, dwarf, or human, you can change to gnome when that's available; it may be a limited time that you can change. You can't change your elf character to a human or dwarf later, because those characters were already an option when you made the character.
I think you'd be fine to start the character as a different race but a gnomish name, and change race when that's available.
Yes, this is how we've been told it will work.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm starting to wonder about the idea that pouring large sums of money into a Kickstarter predisposes people to like the game. Some of PFO's most vocal supporters here on the board are high-dollar Kickstarter supporters. On the other hand, when high-dollar Kickstarter supporters become disillusioned, they tend to be among its most vocal critics/detractors.
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Goblin Squad Member
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... will I be able to make my main some other race and mark as a twin and then respec once gnome is available?
Others have already answered this, but since it's what I do...
Respecs for race: I think its reasonable to expect that we'll allow players to switch a character to a new race when a new race is added. It's mostly harmless from a mechanical standpoint. That doesn't mean you can switch to each race as its added - it means you should be able to switch once to a new race.
And yeah, I had the same thought about marking my Main as the Destiny's Twin, and am happy that I won't have to worry about whether or not I can log in my DT at the same time as my Main :)
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Goblin Squad Member
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I wish one of the "urgent fixes" was the pause or delay between activating an ability and it actually going off. There is something quite amiss in terms of ability activation.
Have you played recently? Alpha 11 had a significant improvement in combat fluidity. It feels right, now.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Combat is better Nihimon, sure, but still poor.
The team is improving the game well, just has a long way to go. For a new player trying it out, they will likely not download it again if it disappoints.
This is not free iPad game or a $3.99 per month game you subscribe to and forget about. It is a top rate subscription based game. The money means nothing to me but it will calibrate expectations for a number of people.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I wish one of the "urgent fixes" was the pause or delay between activating an ability and it actually going off. There is something quite amiss in terms of ability activation.Have you played recently? Alpha 11 had a significant improvement in combat fluidity. It feels right, now.
I played once last week, it still seemed like the animation was either too slow or too quick in regards to activation though. Especially if you mash an ability over and over.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Bugs that need fixed:
1. Self damage - why is this even in the game? When I am trying to press F1 to target myself and cast a heal, then tab back to my target and cast an offensive spell, and the server isn't keeping up, and I get hit and flagged from my own attack. Again, why is self damage even in the game?
2. Death loops. When a character is killed by a guard, they need to be flagged to respawn at an area with no guards. Last night I watched a character die to guards, respawn RIGHT THERE, and the 5 guards killed him again. Over and over. Several hundred times before I got bored and left (nothing I could do to help afaik)
3. Mouselook movement, character facing and minimap. When I am trying to steer my character towards something on the minimap, and I change facing to that direction, and move forwards, more than half the time the minimap is so slow to catch up to what I am doing I end up traveling the wrong way. Very annoying.
4. Stats - If you are going to track our stats to 4 or 5 decimal places, these NEED to be on the character sheet. Additionally, the stat increases we get from training a level in X need to be shown when we are clicked on X at the trainer. Right now I have all my classes at the "need 11" ceiling, and I have no idea what is the best way to improve. I attempted to look at the spreadsheet someone on the forums linked, but it didn't have the information I wanted.
5. Martial, Divine, Subterfuge, etc points. These also need to be on the character sheet. For a new player, trying to figure out that your system is 1+2+3+n and then additive with some weapons and not with others is unnecessarily annoying. Have an entry that says:
Martial 13
(and when you hover over it with a mouse it shows:
Martial 13
2 Handed Blade 1+2+3+4 = 10
Goblin Slaying 1+2 = 3
)
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Goblin Squad Member
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Right now I have all my classes at the "need 11" ceiling, and I have no idea what is the best way to improve. I attempted to look at the spreadsheet someone on the forums linked, but it didn't have the information I wanted.
You need to look at the "Copy of PFO Wiki - Official Data" spreadsheet at Pathfinder Online (Public), then scroll to the right until you see the Attack Advancement, Cantrip Advancement, etc. Those Advancement tabs have the information on Ability Score Bonuses for each level of each Feat.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I don't think any judgement can be made until the FAR LARGER NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO ARE WAITING FOR OPEN ENROLLMENT(emphasis mine)
Looks like you just did exactly what you accused me of. You don't get to dictate how many people are waiting for open enrollment. Do you have any numerical support for that statement you can share?
Well, yes, actually. From the kickstarter page:
Pledge $35 or more
2653 backers
Adventurer - Patrons at this level will receive ... an invite to play once the game hits Open Enrollment.
So we know that regardless of how many people choose to play now, or choose to abandon the game, there are over 2500 people who don't get to play in Early Enrollment. Which doesn't include any people who just prefer to wait for one reason or another.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm a little confused by the reputation change. The existing system was very harsh, in part because the buggy autotarget system made it so easy to accidentally (no sarcasm quotes) kill a party member. The new system seems to be at least as lax as the old system was restrictive. That seems especially odd because the improvements to autotargetting should make it harder to kill friends by accident. If the aim was to find a middle ground between 'thou shalt not kill' and 'murder fest', I think some more fine tuning will be needed.
Is this intended to be a temporary change? Is the penalty intended to rise again when the autotargetting system is fixed?
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Goblin Squad Member
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... I think some more fine tuning will be needed.
I'm extremely confident some more fine-tuning will occur. But I'm not at all confident that I know what the right numbers are. To me, this sounds like the "start very constrained and gradually loosen the constraints" approach we were told to expect, even if it seems like considerably more than a "gradual" loosening.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I like the new Reputation penalty amounts. It means that if (to bring out an old example) a gathering character or two owned by hostile force can be removed outside of a feud without difficulty, but it does stop anyone going full murderhobo.
One kill should not amount to multiple days of exile. In my mind, reputation exists to stop murderhobos, not the ability to engage in non-consensual pvp entirely.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm not sure that it is too lax. That was my gut feeling, but one day some silly person was attacking Brighthaven. He got killed multiple times by the guards, and some settlement members got some licks in. One person picked up the murderer flag, for 10+ kills, iirc, but had no significant rep loss, because the attacker had no rep to speak of. My point is that because of threaded gear, we are likely to see a string of killings, not just one at a time.
On the other hand, a party ganking a solo harvester for loot just needs to make one kill (there's no indication the Rep loss is shared). The response party has to make multiple kills to drive off the gankers, so dunno.
@ Goblin Works:
I don't agree with the decision to not higher prioritize broken features, I think it is bad development policy.
If you can't stop forward progression to the next cycle, then quality assurance needs to be stepped up.
Is this "Zog" server I've read about still being used for pre-release/external testing?
Any interest in providing more directed testing objectives to players with a desire or background in game/software QA?
Please contact me if yes.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I like the new Reputation penalty amounts. It means that if (to bring out an old example) a gathering character or two owned by hostile force can be removed outside of a feud without difficulty, but it does stop anyone going full murderhobo.
One kill should not amount to multiple days of exile. In my mind, reputation exists to stop murderhobos, not the ability to engage in non-consensual pvp entirely.
Personally, I am fine with it. Far easier to defend your territory this way. I am just not sure that the greater (outside waiting for EE) community will appreciate it the same.
Need a middle ground between those that don't like PVP and those that love it. This seems negligable and too close to full open, nonconsequential. Willing to see how it works out, though. :)