Pathfinder Online Announced

[Morkar Left]

I think the pathfinder mmo will be a lot more smallscale and more catering to a niche audience than wow and the like. It still sucks

 

[Havoc]

If you read the bottom of their kickstarter it shows that they are looking for investors to finance the very start of their venture. They either don't have the money or don't want to spend the money (aka. spend other people's money to get rich, jew gonna jew). Online games and MMOs are popular and they're looking to string along a few naive investors looking for the next Zynga. I'd say this is a longshot and will take years.

Then why not a NWN game? It will take LESS resources than a MMO.

 

[rashiakas]

A Pathfinder NWN game would probably be even more work then a mmo (if they want to make it at least as good as NWN, and they would need to do better to get all the people who still play on persistent NWN worlds) because designing a good toolset is not that easy, NWN 1 was basically only the toolset, and it was pretty flawed when it came out.

Even if they would make a better Toolset, I bet most of the active NWN communities wouldn't want to start from scratch again (building a persistent world is a lot of work). So the only real use would be some modules, and we all know the quality of those.

If you wish for something better then a Pathfinder MMO, wish for a Pathfinder ToEE, not a Pathfinder NWN.

 

[Havoc]

I got an answer:

I think an MMO fits, if done correctly. The developers (Ryan) has already announced that they would like to put "Modules" into the game that you can play with specific groups of people, and that they would like for players to be able to create those modules as well. So if that is the case, then you get the best of both worlds; a persistent character whose actions continue to have meaning over many years and to many people, and a fun single/multi player modules you can run through with friends that have a deeper meaning since the things you do (xp you gain, loot you get, etc...) will carry over into a persistent world.

 

[Shannow]

I got an answer:

I think an MMO fits, if done correctly. The developers (Ryan) has already announced that they would like to put "Modules" into the game that you can play with specific groups of people, and that they would like for players to be able to create those modules as well. So if that is the case, then you get the best of both worlds; a persistent character whose actions continue to have meaning over many years and to many people, and a fun single/multi player modules you can run through with friends that have a deeper meaning since the things you do (xp you gain, loot you get, etc...) will carry over into a persistent world.

Well, "answer"... Doesn't sound official.
MMOs are also a way around piracy (and so far I've never heard about good freeshards for any game). That's always an issue for devs. WoW scale bucks plus "no" piracy" might function as rose-tinted glasses *shrug*

Also very much this:

If you wish for something better then a Pathfinder MMO, wish for a Pathfinder ToEE, not a Pathfinder NWN.

Or rather ToEE gameplay (and graphics) with NWN's module systems, DMing and persistent worlds.

 

[Havoc]

I don't think you can mix persistent worlds and turn-based combat. A big city and suddenly somebody starts a fight in... the whole place changes from RT to TB.

 

[Renegen]

If you read the bottom of their kickstarter it shows that they are looking for investors to finance the very start of their venture. They either don't have the money or don't want to spend the money (aka. spend other people's money to get rich, jew gonna jew). Online games and MMOs are popular and they're looking to string along a few naive investors looking for the next Zynga. I'd say this is a longshot and will take years.

Then why not a NWN game? It will take LESS resources than a MMO.

I said it in my post, because investors don't want to fund NWN, they want to fund an MMO.

 

[Havoc]

Then I'm blind... with rage.

 

[Shannow]

I don't think you can mix persistent worlds and turn-based combat. A big city and suddenly somebody starts a fight in... the whole place changes from RT to TB.

While you of course have a point, time could go on normally for everybody not involved in the fight.
I've played MMOs with TB combat, but those had separate overland-movement and combat scenes.

 

[Havoc]

That's a system full of exploits to be had*. Mixing TB and RT is a bad idea in a MMO (unless they're seperate from each other).

* For example: How somebody outside get to the combat? By walking in on the combat zone? Then people on RT side will gang up on one side of the combat zone, to fuck up the other party (if we're talking about PvP).

 

[felipepepe]

I don't think you can mix persistent worlds and turn-based combat. A big city and suddenly somebody starts a fight in... the whole place changes from RT to TB.

Then the players in combat phase into a separate "TB time". The only TB MMO I played was Wakfu, and only for a couple of hours, but I handled it quite well, although a bit too limited, restricting the area of the fight and the ability for other players to join the combat, IIRC....

Anyway, the combat is my main concern here, I'm very curious on how they will approach it.

 

[Shannow]

That's a system full of exploits to be had*. Mixing TB and RT is a bad idea in a MMO (unless they're seperate from each other).

* For example: How somebody outside get to the combat? By walking in on the combat zone? Then people on RT side will gang up on one side of the combat zone, to fuck up the other party (if we're talking about PvP).

Uhm, where is it "full of exploits to be had"?
You mention one aspect that can be as easily solved as having consensual PVP (if any).
I'd prefer TB single player Pathfinder game anyway. Just saying that there are TB MMOs. I never said they were good.

 

[Mangoose]

I'm pretty sure it's more a "raise the awareness" and gauge interest thing then anything else. It's a good way to show investors that there is indeed a demand for a non theme park mmo. So it's a lot of free publicity and the hardcore paizo/pathfinder crowd can get their name in the game credits for only 5$. It's a smart move imo.

It's a smart move for them.

It's a shit move for Kickstarter.

 

[felipepepe]

I'm pretty sure it's more a "raise the awareness" and gauge interest thing then anything else. It's a good way to show investors that there is indeed a demand for a non theme park mmo. So it's a lot of free publicity and the hardcore paizo/pathfinder crowd can get their name in the game credits for only 5$. It's a smart move imo.

It's a smart move for them.

It's a shit move for Kickstarter.

Not the first step in this direction, that incredibly jinxed project TAKEDOWN did the same thing...even worse, what they were after was not money for a tech demo, just money to grab the attention of publishers. They can easily say that no publisher was interested and keep all the money...

 

[villain of the story]

<3 Pathfinder but who gives a shit about a fucking MMO? Certainly not me. Fuck them.

 

[rashiakas]

Maybe if the mmo is a succes they can make a single player rpg later. Just because you don't like mmos it is not necessarily a bad thing when they make one.

 

[villain of the story]

Uh-huh, keep telling that to yourself.

 

[rashiakas]

Heh, says the one with the Obsidian Kickstart Poll.

 

[villain of the story]

Uh-huh, sure body. Whatever you say.

 

[rashiakas]

Rayn wants another 50k or 2000 bakers in total.

If they reach 2000 bakers, you get an additional level beneath Thornkeep, designed by Jason Buhlman, and the community decides the flavour of the dungeon.

Now you might asking, what is all the money for, since it is only for a techdemo? Well, Lisa Stevens (CEO and founder of both Paizo and Goblinworks) says:

Any additional money over the goal will allow us to hire more people and build more of the game during this tech demo phase. This in turn will allow us to get a bigger jump on the final game, since the stuff we are doing in the tech demo phase will be used in the regular production phase

Also, additional funding above the goal helps us sell the game to investors. Hitting the $50k goal in less than 24 hours was amazing and impressive, but imagine if we end up with $350k at the end of the 30 days! A 700% success rate would look very good in presentations to investors. Since the main goal of the tech demo is to prove to investors that Pathfinder Online has a great customer base already, the higher we get that end number, the more this Kickstarter will help us sell the idea of Pathfinder Online.

-Lisa

Are we paying for something so we can pay more later, or might this be a chance to get a finally another UO? I sure love me some paizo, but somehow I don't like the way they are doing this.

 

[Fens]

If they reach 2000 bakers, you get an additional level beneath Thornkeep, designed by Jason Buhlman, and the community decides the flavour of the dungeon.

i was hoping 2000 cakes

 

[rashiakas]

thanks fens, I really missed that.

Now, small update:

They managed to get 250k for the techdemo and improved the thornkeep book significantly with levels from Ed Greenwood, Jason Bulmahn, James Jacobs and Erik Mona. 100$ Backers also get two flipmats. whitch is pretty cool imo.

 

[Angelo85]

"Real" Kickstarter is now live: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-a-fantasy-sandbox-mmo

Haven't read the Kickstarter yet, only watched the Video - "The players are the content". Release 2016, or with "stretch goals" 2015.

 

[felipepepe]

"Real" Kickstarter is now live: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-a-fantasy-sandbox-mmo

Haven't read the Kickstarter yet, only watched the Video - "The players are the content". Release 2016, or with "stretch goals" 2015.

I'm extremely dissapointed, they took all that money and made a very generic tech demo that in absolutly no way showcase ANYTHING about the game... seems like any hope of this being a unique MMO that fully explores Pathfinder is long gone...

They say they got private funding, clearly this new kickstarter is just a dumb ruse to squeeze some more money...

 

[Shannow]

They say they got private funding, clearly this new kickstarter is just a dumb ruse to squeeze some more money...

Exactly.
But look what you get. In other Kickstarters you got the whole game for 15-25$.
Here you pay 35$ for a on month subscription (of a game that'll probably be/come fp2 anyway).
And the tech demo looked really awful. No UI, no character sheets. Meh. Good thing I have Chaos Chronicles coming up to scratch my D&D-style gaming needs.
But it'll be interesting to see if this shameless money-grubbing will work out.

EDIT:

Each reward tier that includes the game client also includes a set amount of game time. After that time is used you'll be required to subscribe in order to continue to log in to the game.
During Beta the game will only be available to subscribers. In the long term we expect to have options for people to use microtransactions instead of subscriptions to play.
...

Pathfinder Online has a unique character development system and doesn't use classes the same way the tabletop RPG does. You can read more at goblinworks.com in the blog titled "Your Pathfinder Online Character".


...
Does the MMO use the rules of the Pathfinder tabletop RPG?
Not exactly. Our objective is to capture the flavor rather than the mechanics of the tabletop RPG. Many aspects of the tabletop game will be represented in the MMO but the conversion to a real-time digital world means that the mechanics for the MMO will be new.
Players who are familiar with the tabletop RPG will recognize that heritage in the MMO game systems. Because Pathfinder Online is a game with a much wider scope of activities for characters than the tabletop game, there will also be a lot of game systems that are completely new.