The best way of enjoying the digital versin is to avoid those loot boxes and just a buy Bundle that have all the cards!
Yep, avoid loot boxes and enjoy the game without them! Fortunately there Are those bundles that has all those cards without hunting anything.
You can play the digital game in a way that comes out the same as the physical game. I'm definitely not a fan of the way the stash is implemented nor the treasure chest cards, but you can ignore the whole microtransactions aspect entirely if you so wish.
I do agree that it's a shame they've set it up in such a way as to only ever have RotR though.
To keep my answer very brief; I have a very low opinion of the Pathfinder Adventures video game, and I firmly believe it got worse with time. Keep in mind it's not a Paizo or Lone Shark product; it's Obsidian's. Grievances should be brought up on the Obsidian forums for Pathfinder Adventures (which are never checked, but that's not Paizo's fault nor problem).
Keep in mind, however, that I believe Asmodee was brought in by Obsidian as a publisher to support the translation to the PC port? Historically, Asmodee Digital had nothing to do with the Pathfinder Adventures game for many years.
I've only ever played the PC version (on sale for very cheap), and that version was totally worth it. You can play full games in 15-20 minutes (no shuffling, no set-up, etc.), and it also allowed me to play solo with up to 5-6 characters. That's something I would never do with the physical version, due to the physical and mental challenges of handling that many characters. Even 4 characters can be tough to handle physically.
All told, I did at least 4-5 full campaigns of RotR on the PC with all sorts of character and player combinations, plus the Goblins stuff.
There were also a few minor rules that I thought I understood, but didn't. The PC version corrected those errors in my brain, as it mercilessly enforces the rules. Mostly correctly. :)
The only issue is that there are definite bugs. There's at least one scenario that's more difficult than intended because it isn't implemented properly. Also, under no circumstances should you play Revelation Quill or Scrying in the final scenario. Both cards cause the game to crash hard.
I would also never play the PC version on permadeath mode, as it's too easy to hit the spacebar accidentally (wait! stop!) and kill yourself.
My latest PC challenge was to beat the RotR campaign with only two characters, which I'd never done before. I eventually did it with the cleric and rogue. Good times.
I have put, between tablet and PC, well over 200 hours into that game, and it was my introduction to PACG. For that, I'm grateful, but the technological maintenance has been amongst the most shoddy I've ever encountered in a video game, and consistent bugs that have existed for years have not been fixed, in preference to releasing the new Goblins content, which was even more bugged still. I have approximately 80 outstanding bug reports, of which a grand total of 0 have been fixed in approximately 18 months (some bug reports were made as recently as 2-3 months ago, to be fair). I'm certain that development has entirely stalled on what still blatantly feels like an unfinished product.
In my case, my preference is, by far, to play scripted PACG on Tabletop Simulator if I need a digital version with no setup. As an owner of the physical box sets, I feel no guilt in doing so - I just didn't touch the box sets that I didn't personally own until I had purchased them.
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They did some great things with the interface and the basic implementation, but I get the distinct impression that the rules engine is a massive pile of spaghetti and god help anyone trying to sort out the corner cases in it. I haven't seen the code myself but the bug frequency, types and time to fix strongly give that impression.
Still so long as you're not being too purist about it you can play to the implementation even when it's wrong, and just put up with things going crazy occasionally. Most engine explosions recover when you restart. Just don't whatever you do put permadeath on. If you want permadeath (like I do), implement it yourself manually (i.e. just stop playing the character), characters perma-dying to bugs (or indeed even just misclicks) is not pleasant.
The bugs are kind of annoyingly simple, like a monster with a Wisdom roll to use attack spells or weapons and the Wisdom roll is just used as the To Defeat roll instead.
For a fan of the card game, it seems to be worth the $25 to get the base AP and just ignore the other purchases. There are some slightly modified characters you can purchase for $25. Wow, is someone paying these prices? I can't imagine what a new player (never saw the card game before) is thinking... Who would pay that much money for... a slightly different character in the game? For $25 you can get two or three excellent IOS games, or one slightly different character in a card game?!?
I had big hopes for the digital game but I'm kind of glad that some AP's can only be played physically. I got Mummies Mask and a Caseling portable card holder ($12 on Amazon) and I packed AD 0, 1 and 2 inside and made it portable for vacations. It takes up space to play, but it's more fun than the digital version (though, obviously, can't be played on a bus / train / etc...).
I will point out: the folks at Paizo have precisely zero to do with the production of the game you guys are complaining about.
I will point out: the folks at Paizo have precisely zero to do with the production of the game you guys are complaining about.
So? We're not trying to get someone to fix it, it's just a topic of interest to people who play the physical game.
I will point out: the folks at Paizo have precisely zero to do with the production of the game you guys are complaining about.
Indeed; I mentioned precisely as much in my first post in the thread.
On a completely different note, just to clarify something I said earlier I accidentally stated that there were 2 characters, of the full set, who were consistently bugged. I meant to say that all playable characters but 2 had at least one objective bug associated with them in the goblins campaign; whether abilities not triggering in correct circumstances, causing other cards to bug out, or the ability flat out not working as written.
** spoiler omitted **
The game is so old that it is not supported any more via updates. But it is playable, but three more updates would help though...
** spoiler omitted **The game is so old that it is not supported any more via updates. But it is playable, but three more updates would help though...
To clarify, more than 60 of the 80 bugs I'd reported had been reported prior to the latest content update (adventure 2 of the Goblins AP). And about 40 of them had been reported prior to the first Goblins adventure, and indeed prior to the PC port (and the corresponding business model changes, and the removal of questing mode around that time). A mode that was removed - despite it's general simplicity (randomise some scenario rules, henchmen and locations and go) because of the technical difficulty.
The underlying code base is absolutely certainly a mess, and they've clearly had development resources pulled from it long before the PC release and later content updates. Nevertheless, continuing to update and develop a game with colossal lists of outstanding technical faults has certainly not won me over for their management and decision making processes, added to the all but complete and total lack of community management or communication.
Yep. Most of the bugs Are really old or those that have come back... too Little workforce to clean em up as you supose.
I'm a bit shocked at the negative attitude in this thread, especially towards Obsidian, and a lot of the information in this thread about the working behind the scenes seems like it's more based on conjecture than facts.
I don't think that Obsidian had the authority to decide on the micro-transactions without Paizo having a word in this, and I think it's unfair to blame everything on Obsidian without having insider information on how things actually transpired. You also have to consider that the team that worked on the digital game was far smaller than the team working on the actual card game.
Whether the current state of the game is Obsidian's fault for not working efficiently enough or Paizo's fault for not giving them more resources (or due to another reason) is certainly something no one is able to say for sure without further insights (do you expect Obsidian to work for free after the development resources have been used up? If paizo orders another DLC and they use their resources up for that, there won't be any bugfixes either).
Overpriced character alts DLC aside, you can get the whole RotR digital game for 25$, compared to the 180$ I paid when the game released physically (also, it's sold out now). With discounts, you are still looking at 5$ compared to 50$. I think the bugs are acceptable for what you save over the physical version. The DLC with new content isn't actual that expensive either if you compare it to promo characters and OP scenarios for the physical game.
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I apologise, Doppelschwert, and I certainly know first-hand the issue with assigning blame when there's numerous parties and considerations involved that are not immediately visible. Financial, legal, contractual. Publishers, clients, developers.
With that said, I should make clear that my view is highly negative towards the game, not the company. Furthermore, they are fundamentally opinions, based on feelings that developed after a very long time spent with the game and attempting to participate in the community for it.
The value proposition is certainly there (in fact, note that it used to be completely free to play on the app store, and I believe it's still got the first Adventure as free to play on the mobile/tablet client), but that's not something that cares to me as a player. I care much more about the quality of my experience than the cost, as a general rule of thumb.
In my case, I realized that by the time I'd joined the game it was already in a state of decline, and community engagement had already been dropped - potentially for good reasons. When I switched the energy I was spending on that and there to the official Paizo forums, and the physical product, the quality of my experience went way, way up. My remaining feelings for the videogame is almost entirely negative, but I do not hold anything truly against Obsidian for it; nor could I truly know who is 'to blame', if anyone at all. More likely it's just a matter of unfortunate factors from all sides.
It's certainly not Asmodee, at least, given how recently their involvement started.
Finally, regarding the literal code base behind the scene, Occams Razor largely applies, given a long string of patterns with specific card and power interactions growing more and more unwieldy, based repeatedly on the same elements (dice rolls before a proper check is made against a bane is perhaps the #1 issue), and posts made on the official forums by official employees, albeit some time ago, suggests that a major code refactoring was required and, presumably, never happened. Budget constraints, contractual obligations, legal limitations? Could've been anything. Conjecture it all may be, but the suggestion that the code base has some extreme restrictions or poorly performing modules is reasonably strong conjecture, as far as video game critiques and conjecture goes.
But, as almost everything I've posted in this particular forum thread is; it's all mere opinions. Opinions from someone who openly admits that I'm bitter from my experiences with it, of which are significant in number. That I'm bitter and fearful that the limitations of it, and the presumably troubled development, spells a poor mark for the likelihood of future, more refined, digital adaptations of PACG.
To summarize again; I'm bitter. I'm bitter about the game. I'm bitter about the implications. I'm bitter about what could have been, and I'm bitter about what could have been better. The only reason I'm so bitter is because I got so invested in the first place, that I spent so, so much time, and saw more and more things break with every patch that was released in 2016 and 2017, rather than be fixed.
I am not bitter about Paizo or Obsidian, and certainly not Asmodee. And I never cared about the microtransactions in the slightest; I just never used them.
I suppose it's also probably worth noting that I wouldn't discourage people from buying the game, either. For the reason you described (especially the free mobile version); it's a good value proposition, and it teaches the game well. I also like their handling of the story quite a bit - but then, it is Obsidian we're talking about. Known for their storytelling, and the writers behind some of my all-time favorite games, even if their development teams have changed in no small measure with time.
Just my two cents...I liked it. In particular, I think the game does a good job of at least getting players familiar with the general flow of the game by allowing them to focus on the stages in a turn while the game handles the shuffling and scenario set-up. I think the game captured the excitement of creating a character, fighting monsters, acquiring good stuff, falling into traps, and leveling up.
Yes, there were bugs, but find me a game without bugs. I played the through the whole RotR AP and while the bugs were increasingly frustrating, it wasn't unplayable and still mostly enjoyable.
Yes, there could be more AP's, but i thought the RotR and season of gobs are good introductions to the game. They later pushed out the valeros adventure which I haven't tried yet.
The loot boxes were an unfortunate decision (read: i hate microtransactions), but they do allow you to purchase the Obsidian version on steam. They also introduced their "Ambassador program" which unlocked the obsidian version for anyone who spent $25 or more collectively while playing the mobile app. source.. Going forward I just recommend people to play the free version, and if they like it, buy the steam version and link it to their mobile account. This way they get all the content and can ignore the micro transactions.
So yeah, I agree, not everything is perfect, but it's how I learned to play the game. I liked it enough I bought a secondhand copy of RotR for $50 and from there I was hooked. I rarely have an inclination to play the digital app now, but that's more or less because I have a constant backlog of games I'm trying to get through.
I'm still glad it exists and I still do recommend it to people (with some warnings), but I'm also very sad for what could have been, and indeed nearly was, compared to where it ended up. I couldn't really care less whose "fault" that is. There's plenty of sequences of individually sensible decisions that can lead to a mess anyway.
I think we all realize we're in a Paizo forum discussing a product that uses licensed Paizo material but is way out of Paizo's hands.
My two cents is I've enjoyed both the tablet and the Steam versions of Pathfinder Adventures (my eyes are too poor to play it on my phone). I think it's definitely created renewed interest in the physical card game, which I think is great.
All that said -- Yewstance has a very valid point, IMHO, that the game on each platform has been exceptionally buggy, and that, as far as I can tell, there is no end to that in sight. (In contrast, I beta'd the tablet, phone and Steam versions of digital game based on a physical game I won't name, and every implementation was incredibly rock-solid -- we beta testers spent most of our time offering suggestions for a better UI and critiquing the AI.)