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[Pathfinder Online] It's a Pathfinder MMO

24

Posts

  • wavecutterwavecutter Registered User regular
    I've soiled myself in anticipation.

  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Greatest TotP ever.

  • TheKoolEagleTheKoolEagle Registered User regular
    what worries me is while it does look like they are looking to use eve mechanics (love that bit) I fear it will go the way of darkfall, because I was so very excited for darkfall and it was absolutely terrible

    uNMAGLm.png Mon-Fri 8:30 PM CST - 11:30 PM CST
  • SquiddyBiscuitSquiddyBiscuit Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    15/02/2012 Update! - LFG! (Looking for Group!)

    Quoting the game relevant stuff (question is how much of this will end up in the game):
    The fundamental social unit that most players will experience is the party. This is a classic adventuring team that self-assembles to go out and kick down doors, whack monsters, and power up. But the party has other functions in Pathfinder Online. Parties may form to go harvest resources: some members will extract the resource while others patrol and fight off hazards that appear (see our previous blog for more info on how this system works). Parties could also be a caravan, with some members moving large quantities of goods from place to place, and some acting as guards to protect the group from hazards and brigands.

    Parties will typically be small, just a few characters. We haven't picked an upper limit, but expect it to be only a couple of dozen characters at most.

    Some sort of chronicle group feature?
    There will be many ways to find a party to join, and lots of ways for parties to find new members. We want to make it really easy for people to group into ad hoc parties that may only last for a few hours while the group completes an objective. The people you meet during these adventures could become friends (or enemies) as you move deeper into the social networks of the game. You'll be able to track those you've been in a party with and see what happened during those adventures, and you'll even be able to note if those individuals were friends, enemies, or neutral for later encounters.

    No one is truly self-sufficient (much like EVE, again!):
    Solo play is going to require a character that has quite a bit of diversity in character abilities. You'll want to be able to explore (to find stuff), to heal (to recover from the monsters that infest the stuff you find), to adventure (so you can cope with the hostile environments you'll be exploring), and to fight (so you can try to kill the creatures that make those environments especially hostile). (Sounds very "ranger-y" or "druid-y" to us.)

    Chartered companies are quasi-guilds that can create player-settlements, which are essentially player-run towns/cities, and these settlements can then get together and create "kingdoms". This is kinda analogous to corps and alliances in EVE, except that these are in Pathfinder online dependent on a physical location - if you got no settlement, then you can't create a kingdom.

    And these are all similarities that they are very well aware of:
    We want to mirror some of the amazing things that occurred in Ultima Online and EVE Online, but we also want to strike out on our own path. At the size and scale that Pathfinder Online will eventually reach, opportunities for player-driven content to become epic are everywhere, and we're going to be working to maximize those epic stories when they naturally arise.

    We also want to avoid some of the missteps that have happened in other games. We want to ensure that there's always enough space so that new settlements and kingdoms can form. We want to avoid the problem of choke points that restrict access to key resources, making whomever got to those points first the de facto "winners" in the economy. We also want to retain the sense that the land is wild and untamed. You'll be able to leave civilization behind and go out in the dark areas of the map where nothing rules except monsters, robbers, and cults.

    SquiddyBiscuit on
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  • CadmusCadmus Registered User regular
    As far as I can tell, there will be 2 groups of people most likely to anticipate this game.

    Hardcore pen and paper role playing types that might have played a bit of wow and Eve players.

    It'll be a very interesting game with those 2 groups mixed together and I think it'll be really hard to balance for both. The role players will hate it when they get stomped all over and scammed by the eve players. The eve players will hate it if they can't stomp all over roleplaying nerds...

  • SquiddyBiscuitSquiddyBiscuit Registered User regular
    Both those groups might be attracted to the game, but I get the feeling that the developers will primarily focus on the EVE-type of crowd - to get a steady and secure source of revenue much like EVE has.

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  • KadokenKadoken Giving Ends to my Friends and it Feels Stupendous Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    ...Subscription?

    Kadoken on
  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    I still see no reason to suspect this will actually ever become a game. They don't even have a real team of developers or a full company yet. They're just pushing out ideas trying to get jobs at a real studio.

    What is this I don't even.
  • CadmusCadmus Registered User regular
    They are using a very unique development model so they might actually have enough people. Keep in mind that they have a small team of full time guys but who knows how much of the game is being contracted out? They can easily contract out all the art work and modelling. If they use an existing engine that will save them tons of time as well. All the lore, story, etc. is already done and since it's a sandbox game, there really isn't much design needed beyond that.

    I get the feeling they'll make the game mechanics up and tweak them for balance after release.

    I'm not saying it'll work, but it's a neat idea and might work out. I'd say there is a pretty good chance of them at least getting to their planned first release with a limited user base. Not saying it'll be a game that anyone wants to play though :P

  • KhoramKhoram Registered User regular
    They already said in the very first blog post or so when it was announced that they were going to use COTS engines/products for everything except the art and game mechanics. This was the only way to get it out the door in a short amount of time (I think they may have said 12-18 months?) and on an extremely low budget.

  • SquiddyBiscuitSquiddyBiscuit Registered User regular
    Player-Created Buildings and Structures

    New update with a little info and mostly ideas on player created buildings.
    Buildings can be built in set locations in the world, in order to avoid over crowding and abuse of mechanics, and then upgraded, razed, and repaired.

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  • ComahawkComahawk Registered User regular
    Player-Created Buildings and Structures

    New update with a little info and mostly ideas on player created buildings.
    Buildings can be built in set locations in the world, in order to avoid over crowding and abuse of mechanics, and then upgraded, razed, and repaired.

    I like the idea of restricting build areas, but hope it is more along the lines of not being able to build within a certain proximity of some things. Meaning, I would be annoyed if they just set a bunch of areas aside as build areas, as it is a very inorganic model to follow.

  • ZoelZoel I suppose... I'd put it on Registered User regular
    Cadmus wrote: »
    Garthor wrote:
    That bounty system still seems inadequate. Players who are involved in player-killing will, as a rule, carry nothing, because they expect to have a very high risk of death. So, the penalty for death for them is as close to nil as possible, because they have little-to-no carried equipment to be destroyed. The whole thing just seems like another way in which to jerk off antisocial twits by skewing the rules of the game to be massively in their favor.

    In EVE there is very little penalty for 'antisocial twits', aside from them not being able to enter high security areas (which really doesn't matter).

    Rather than this turning the game into a haven for antisocial twits it pushes everyone else into highly social groups. You simply don't play eve without being in a corporation, it's just not possible, you can't do anything without dieing. Once you are in a decent corporation though, it's very safe. The antisocial twits either get their asses handed to them or, if they are the other kind of antisocial twit, they never leave the high security areas. The game is won and lost with social interaction. The biggest army is the best tactic.

    It's a system that works quite well in EVE and I can see it easily being adapted.

    Keep in mind that they aren't planning this to be a 'join random group for dungeon X' game like wow is. If you're a jackass, you likely wont be able to click a button and inflict yourself upon a new random group of 4 people.

    The problem with using a system that works well in Eve is that everyone who wants to play Eve is playing Eve. Unfortunately, there just aren't enough people clamoring for an MMO like Eve to support another one. Are there really enough people to support eve and (darkfall, perpetuum, whatever)? Probably not. I guess the devil's advocate there is that there probably are enough people who would go to another game like Eve if it had more entertaining mechanics.

    I'll resist the urge to go on a rant about Eve.

    A magician gives you a ring that, when worn, will let you see the world as it truly is.
    However, the ring will never leave your finger, and you will be unable to ever describe to another living person what you see.
  • CadmusCadmus Registered User regular
    Zoel wrote: »
    Cadmus wrote: »
    Garthor wrote:
    That bounty system still seems inadequate. Players who are involved in player-killing will, as a rule, carry nothing, because they expect to have a very high risk of death. So, the penalty for death for them is as close to nil as possible, because they have little-to-no carried equipment to be destroyed. The whole thing just seems like another way in which to jerk off antisocial twits by skewing the rules of the game to be massively in their favor.

    In EVE there is very little penalty for 'antisocial twits', aside from them not being able to enter high security areas (which really doesn't matter).

    Rather than this turning the game into a haven for antisocial twits it pushes everyone else into highly social groups. You simply don't play eve without being in a corporation, it's just not possible, you can't do anything without dieing. Once you are in a decent corporation though, it's very safe. The antisocial twits either get their asses handed to them or, if they are the other kind of antisocial twit, they never leave the high security areas. The game is won and lost with social interaction. The biggest army is the best tactic.

    It's a system that works quite well in EVE and I can see it easily being adapted.

    Keep in mind that they aren't planning this to be a 'join random group for dungeon X' game like wow is. If you're a jackass, you likely wont be able to click a button and inflict yourself upon a new random group of 4 people.

    The problem with using a system that works well in Eve is that everyone who wants to play Eve is playing Eve. Unfortunately, there just aren't enough people clamoring for an MMO like Eve to support another one. Are there really enough people to support eve and (darkfall, perpetuum, whatever)? Probably not. I guess the devil's advocate there is that there probably are enough people who would go to another game like Eve if it had more entertaining mechanics.

    I'll resist the urge to go on a rant about Eve.

    I hardly think this one mechanic defines the entire game.

  • MagicPrimeMagicPrime FiresideWizard Registered User regular
    The only problem with EVE is that it is really hard to get into the meta-game of EVE if you weren't there from the beginning.

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  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    MagicPrime wrote: »
    The only problem with EVE is that it is really hard to get into the meta-game of EVE if you weren't there from the beginning.

    that is not the only problem with eve

  • CorehealerCorehealer The Apothecary The softer edge of the universe.Registered User regular
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    MagicPrime wrote: »
    The only problem with EVE is that it is really hard to get into the meta-game of EVE if you weren't there from the beginning.

    that is not the only problem with eve

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  • CadmusCadmus Registered User regular
    I found it pretty easy to get into the meta game. The biggest thing that keeps new people out is the learning curve. Absolutely nothing is handed to you. If you don't like the idea of spending as much time reading about the game as playing it, then it's definitely not the game for you.

    My biggest complaint with eve is the controls. Asteroids has better space flight.

  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    Cadmus wrote: »
    I found it pretty easy to get into the meta game. The biggest thing that keeps new people out is the learning curve. Absolutely nothing is handed to you. If you don't like the idea of spending as much time reading about the game as playing it, then it's definitely not the game for you.

    My biggest complaint with eve is the controls. Asteroids has better space flight.

    I got into the meta. I figured out how to fly a good ship. I got a sweet battleship, battlecruiser and assault. Then I realized that spending 10 hours doing something insanely monotonous, like ratting, mining or patrolling, was not worth the 3 minute pvp payout I got.

    What is this I don't even.
  • CadmusCadmus Registered User regular
    That's why it's called spreadsheets in space

    Figuring out how to train for a battleship, battlecruiser and assault ship isn't going very deep. If you are spending 10 hours doing monotonous stuff for 3 minutes of pvp then there is probably a LOT about the game that you don't know.

    I make enough to pay for an account by logging in for 10 minutes every week.

    The really important point here though is this: None of these complaints about eve have anything to do with the bounty system they are planning for pathfinder, which sounds like a much improved version of the one used in eve.

  • ComahawkComahawk Registered User regular
    Cadmus wrote: »
    I found it pretty easy to get into the meta game. The biggest thing that keeps new people out is the learning curve. Absolutely nothing is handed to you. If you don't like the idea of spending as much time reading about the game as playing it, then it's definitely not the game for you.

    My biggest complaint with eve is the controls. Asteroids has better space flight.

    This post made me realize why I like Eve: It is a lot like old BBS games. If you want to know what the best way to play is, you need to do some reading.

    Nothing is really handed to you, and I can appreciate a lack of spoon-feeding.

  • CadmusCadmus Registered User regular
    While I think the pathfinder MMO would be awesome if it was like eve, I think it would be a huge disappointment to pathfinder fans.

    Theme park MMO's suck for roleplaying because you have very limited options, sandboxes suck because you have no way to force everyone to role play. There is one large alliance in EvE that is role-play focused but it's hardly an ideal environment :/

  • GarthorGarthor Registered User regular
    Comahawk wrote: »
    Cadmus wrote: »
    I found it pretty easy to get into the meta game. The biggest thing that keeps new people out is the learning curve. Absolutely nothing is handed to you. If you don't like the idea of spending as much time reading about the game as playing it, then it's definitely not the game for you.

    My biggest complaint with eve is the controls. Asteroids has better space flight.

    This post made me realize why I like Eve: It is a lot like old BBS games. If you want to know what the best way to play is, you need to do some reading.

    Nothing is really handed to you, and I can appreciate a lack of spoon-feeding.

    I don't understand this sentiment. "Nothing is really handed to you," but then you just said that you look up the answers online. Which is, you know, having the answers handed to you. So, it's not the principle of the thing, you just like the idea of the game being a pile of obscure shit.

    The only possible straw I can grasp at here is that you enjoy the idea of other people not being good at the game, but then you're just coming here to post "yeah guys I am the biggest fucking sociopath" and I'm not sure why you would do that.

  • ComahawkComahawk Registered User regular
    Garthor wrote: »
    Comahawk wrote: »
    Cadmus wrote: »
    I found it pretty easy to get into the meta game. The biggest thing that keeps new people out is the learning curve. Absolutely nothing is handed to you. If you don't like the idea of spending as much time reading about the game as playing it, then it's definitely not the game for you.

    My biggest complaint with eve is the controls. Asteroids has better space flight.

    This post made me realize why I like Eve: It is a lot like old BBS games. If you want to know what the best way to play is, you need to do some reading.

    Nothing is really handed to you, and I can appreciate a lack of spoon-feeding.

    I don't understand this sentiment. "Nothing is really handed to you," but then you just said that you look up the answers online. Which is, you know, having the answers handed to you. So, it's not the principle of the thing, you just like the idea of the game being a pile of obscure shit.

    The only possible straw I can grasp at here is that you enjoy the idea of other people not being good at the game, but then you're just coming here to post "yeah guys I am the biggest fucking sociopath" and I'm not sure why you would do that.

    I really don't get how you came to this conclusion, so I am going to have trouble defending what I've said. First off, needing to look up information in order to determine what is the best course of action is having things handed to you? Post-secondary education as whole is basically expensive day care if this logic is sound.

    Second, I do like the game being obscure, it adds mystery and depth. Take WoW for example, when it first started up, you were given quests with vague directions as to where to go. Last I played, they decided to remove that element and just show you on the map. Features such as this remove any sort of exploration or interest in the setting, and basically turn it into a pointless grind. This is spoon feeding, as a developer you are basically assuming your players are too stupid or useless to be able to do some research, or engage other players, in order to gather the information resources in order to reach their goal. What is the point of playing a game if you can't learn more and improve your own capacity to play?

    Third, every game will have players who are better than the other players. I don't quite grasp how you think those who are willing to invest more time in learning to play in a fashion that is more productive are somehow sociopathic. MMOs with a strong PVP core, such as Eve, rely on player competition; this does not mean these players all hate other people and lack empathy. Additionally, enjoying being better than someone else at something does not make one a sociopath.

  • CadmusCadmus Registered User regular
    Garthor wrote: »
    Comahawk wrote: »
    Cadmus wrote: »
    I found it pretty easy to get into the meta game. The biggest thing that keeps new people out is the learning curve. Absolutely nothing is handed to you. If you don't like the idea of spending as much time reading about the game as playing it, then it's definitely not the game for you.

    My biggest complaint with eve is the controls. Asteroids has better space flight.

    This post made me realize why I like Eve: It is a lot like old BBS games. If you want to know what the best way to play is, you need to do some reading.

    Nothing is really handed to you, and I can appreciate a lack of spoon-feeding.

    I don't understand this sentiment. "Nothing is really handed to you," but then you just said that you look up the answers online. Which is, you know, having the answers handed to you. So, it's not the principle of the thing, you just like the idea of the game being a pile of obscure shit.

    The only possible straw I can grasp at here is that you enjoy the idea of other people not being good at the game, but then you're just coming here to post "yeah guys I am the biggest fucking sociopath" and I'm not sure why you would do that.

    Nobody said you type "how to play eve" in google and everything is there on a silver platter.

    As an example, I wanted to put up some towers and do reactions to process moon materials into advanced materials for profit. Here's a list of things that I had to look up and/or do in order to find out if I could make any money doing this.

    - How towers work
    - How reactions work
    - Caldari control towers stats
    - Gallente control tower stats
    - Amar control tower stats
    - Minmatar control tower stats
    - Faction tower stats (that's 8 more tower types)
    - Fuel usage for all these towers (that's for all 12 towers)
    - What reactions use what materials (20+ different pages on the eve item database)
    - Get a character to the major market hub
    - Create a spreadsheet of all the raw, processed and advanced moon materials
    - Look up the value of these materials in the market hub and add them to the spreadsheet
    - Create spread sheets to calculate what modules I can put on each type of control tower
    - Look up what all the different modules do to see if any are useless and find out what I need (looking at 15-20 different seaches)
    - Create spreadsheets for simple reactions to calculate how much each of each input resource is needed and how much it will cost each month vs how much profit I could expect from the output
    - Create spreadsheets for complex reactions, same as above
    - Look up historical pricing data on the output from the complex reactions to see if any are high and/or low right now and how volatile the prices are
    - Look up what the different advanced materials are used for to see what future factors could affect my profit margins
    - Talk to my corp to see if anyone with a jump freighter is willing to move the input and output in/out of high sec for me and how much it would cost
    - Use above spreadsheets to calculate weekly transport volume and factor the price into profit margins
    - Talk to alliance leadership to see if I could get moons to anchor my towers on and what systems they would be in
    - Look up ways to move the materials from the null sec transportation hub to where my towers would be
    - Look up training for an orca and calculating how long it will take

    I'm missing a bunch and a lot of that is condensed but I think you can get the idea.

    Oh and in case you think none of that was necessary, after doing all that, I was able to determine that it wouldn't be possible to do this without a good chance of losing lots of money, despite the cost of the input materials + tower fuel being way lower than the output. The little expenses added up and it would take too long to pay off the cost of the initial towers.

    If none of that makes sense to you, I suggest you google it, since it's all handed to you anyway.

  • GarthorGarthor Registered User regular
    edited March 2012
    So what you're saying is that you prefer it when a game contains absolutely no useful documentation and you have to rely on third party resources to answer questions as simple as "what exactly does XYZ do?"

    Do you spit at the monitor whenever a tutorial pops up?

    See, I'm confused because this is objectively bad game design, and yet somehow you take pleasure in it.

    Garthor on
  • ComahawkComahawk Registered User regular
    I also curse the game in Romanian after I spit on the monitor, secretly transmitting a Gypsy curse on the devs.

    You may be confused because you are seemingly approaching this subject in a black and white manner. Seemingly, you view games as either having everything laid out and being awesome, or being complete shit with no instruction what-so-ever. Which is really not what we are saying, or attempting to explain to you.

    What I am saying is that I really don't like having the game spoon fed to me and that I really enjoy a complex game. Even after years of playing, I still discover new things. Moon mining is a good example of this. Your average Eve player knows the basic concept of power grids and such, and through gameplay will know how to set up a moon mining operation. However, in order to make that operation efficient and profitable, those players will need to consult internet resources to read up on the most efficient tower to use and setup ideas. While this information is not critical, it is extremely helpful and not at all handed to you through tutorials. Effectively, situations like this make the experience more immersive, as you need to consult with other players or their websites to figure out the best way to do certain operations.

  • GarthorGarthor Registered User regular
    edited March 2012
    Except there is a big leap being made here. I can understand "game does not explain optimal configuration of components", because that's essentially just a puzzle, though in my opinion the fact that you can just look up an answer online tells me it's not a very good one for an MMO. However, half of Cadmus's list is incredibly basic things like "how does this component of the game work" or "what are the statistics of this item which I cannot view the statistics of without buying first?" That's stupid.

    Garthor on
  • ComahawkComahawk Registered User regular
    Garthor wrote: »
    Except there is a big leap being made here. I can understand "game does not explain optimal configuration of components", because that's essentially just a puzzle, though in my opinion the fact that you can just look up an answer online tells me it's not a very good one for an MMO. However, half of Cadmus's list is incredibly basic things like "how does this component of the game work" or "what are the statistics of this item which I cannot view the statistics of without buying first?" That's stupid.

    You are right, I have changed my ways. FUCK EVE!

    But more seriously, this argument is going in circles and accomplishing nothing productive at this point.

  • SkyCaptainSkyCaptain IndianaRegistered User regular
    edited March 2012
    I like the lack of in-game documentation in Eve. Also, I guess I better start being active in Pathfinder Society stuff or something. That first 4500 is gonna fill up fast.

    SkyCaptain on
    The RPG Bestiary - Dangerous foes and legendary monsters for D&D 4th Edition
  • SquiddyBiscuitSquiddyBiscuit Registered User regular
    SkyCaptain wrote: »
    I like the lack of in-game documentation in Eve. Also, I guess I better start being active in Pathfinder Society stuff or something. That first 4500 is gonna fill up fast.

    I try to participate on that site, but there are people there with a serious amount of free time at their hands so if they go for the "community" peeps I'm afraid I wouldn't be one of the 45 hundred.

    steam_sig.png
  • CadmusCadmus Registered User regular
    Garthor wrote: »
    So what you're saying is that you prefer it when a game contains absolutely no useful documentation and you have to rely on third party resources to answer questions as simple as "what exactly does XYZ do?"

    Do you spit at the monitor whenever a tutorial pops up?

    See, I'm confused because this is objectively bad game design, and yet somehow you take pleasure in it.

    Really? So any game that isn't simple, is bad and nobody should like it?

    I don't care if you don't like eve, that's fine, but saying any game that uses a system that is remotely similar to one part of thousands that make up eve is pretty bold.

    There is plenty of useful documentation in the game that explains the basics. What you fail to understand is that there is a lot more to eve than the basics. "A starbase tower floats in space near a moon and provides power to other starbase components" is the basic description. If you want every detail of how it works beyond that handed to you then you are pretty lazy. I never said anything about third party documentation and nothing says "This is the optimal configuration for XYZ", there is no optimal configuration. How you configure your tower depends on what you are doing with it, where you are doing it, who your friends are, how well your friends control the area, how many enemies you have in the area and what they are capable of, what resources your corp/alliance can provide to help. These are the things that you need to research on your own.

    Expecting that is like walking into a bank and saying "I want a business plan and loan, now!". It's just a tiny bit more complicated than that.
    Garthor wrote: »
    Except there is a big leap being made here. I can understand "game does not explain optimal configuration of components", because that's essentially just a puzzle, though in my opinion the fact that you can just look up an answer online tells me it's not a very good one for an MMO. However, half of Cadmus's list is incredibly basic things like "how does this component of the game work" or "what are the statistics of this item which I cannot view the statistics of without buying first?" That's stupid.

    Eve is a sandbox game, there is no optimal configuration for anything. Every single thing that you do in the game interacts with other people playing the game. You don't hit some third party site that says "use these modules" and win the game. "How does this component of the game work" is not a basic question. This isn't an FPS where you can explain the entire depth of the game in a 30 second tutorial "W moves you forward, mouse aims, mouse button one shoots, space bar jumps". That said, the high level description of each component of the game is given in the starting tutorials.

    Every item in the game has it's statistics fully viewable without buying the item first.

    I get the impression from your post that you hate sandbox games because they require you to think for yourself and figure out what you want to do. I don't think you'll like pathfinder. They are planning to make it a sandbox game, that means there is a world and there is things, that's it. It's kind of like real life, you get dropped into the world and it's up to you to set your goals, learn what you need and plan your actions. Some people find this fun, just because you don't get it, doesn't mean it's dumb.

  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    why are you guys talking about eve in a pathfinder thread still

  • CadmusCadmus Registered User regular
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    why are you guys talking about eve in a pathfinder thread still

    Some of the guys who worked on eve at the beginning are now doing the pathfinder game and from what they've said in their dev blogs, they are using and/or improving on a lot of systems/mechanics used in eve. Also, there aren't very many other sandbox games that are comparable.

    At least, that's why I mentioned it. As far as I can tell, everyone else just posted to rage because they hate and/or suck at eve.

  • JediNightJediNight Registered User regular
    I'm working on a turn-based RPG atm, but my next project I want to work on is definitely my own idea of an improvement on EVE Online. I think you could still have a great game, and far more commercial success by ramping up the ability to have coordinated economics, neutral players, etc. while at the same time allowing corp-based warfare or whatever. The key would be ramping up the amount of time people would actually be fighting instead of flying around or ship-spinning. Something like .... when your ship is wrecked, you lose a permanent "durability" on it or such. So you could say, repair it a set number of times before the hull was damaged beyond repair. Mining/Industry would be a far more dynamic meta-game with a lot less risk to random griefing -- more importance placed on discovering rich ore veins in belts, a dynamic engaging way to mine the ore and/or break up the asteroid to get at what you need (think extrapolation off Asteroids?) and not dealing with stupid shit like rat respawns in a belt.

    Corp fighting would be concentrated on the edges of their territory, rather than letting random squads be able to fly through the territory with impunity. This would allow far more collaboration for the economic stuff without the neurotic tic of watching Local every second for hours and worrying about rat respawns, etc. You would actually be able to make good use of "industrial capital ships" etc. most of the time rather than rarely. Maybe some types of bonuses to ore yields that would encourage grouping and make it worth more than just solo mining with a rat-tank build and a 2nd account for hauling, etc.

  • SquiddyBiscuitSquiddyBiscuit Registered User regular
    Update: Time is the Fire in which We Burn

    https://goblinworks.com/blog/
    15 Seconds to a Minute

    Everyone playing Pathfinder Online should have the experience of some time in daylight and some time at night, regardless of where you're physically located and what time you regularly play. So there will be a day/night change every three real-time hours in the game. That means that days in Pathfinder Online will pass four times faster than real time—each in-game minute will pass in 15 real-time seconds.

    With respect to seasons, the River Kingdoms are in the northern hemisphere of Golarion, and they will have seasons that correspond to the Earth's northern hemisphere. When it's winter in Seattle, it will be winter in Pathfinder Online. (Of course we'd like to have visual seasonal changes like snow in the winter, flowering foliage in the spring, leaves changing color in autumn, etc. That's a long-range objective which may not be implemented in-game for quite some time, though.)

    To preserve this mapping between Golarion seasons and real seasons, the Pathfinder Online's version of Golarion will need four times as many days per year. This is a change from the Golarion of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but it shouldn't create any significant continuity issues, as one year in Pathfinder Online will still map to one year in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, which maps to one year in real time.

    Some more stuff on fast travel and stuff, that sounds similar to EVE gate jumps and whatnot.

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  • SquiddyBiscuitSquiddyBiscuit Registered User regular
    Update: Money Changes Everything
    I promise you I'm not working for Goblinworks :p

    Some basic stuff on the in-game economy, and some juicy bits on their cash shop:
    We start with stored value. We're currently calling this "Skymetal Bits." Each account has a Skymetal bank, and you can purchase Skymetal Bits from Goblinworks using a variety of payment methods. Because there are overhead costs involved in processing credit and debit cards, there will be a minimum amount that you can purchase at one time. We haven't set that minimum yet, but expect it to be in line with other MMOs at around USD $5-10.

    The other part of this system is the Skymetal Bits store, which will be accessible both in–game and via our website. In the store, you'll be able to see prices and features of all the things you can purchase with Skymetal Bits.

    You'll use Skymetal Bits to purchase four kinds of things:

    Enhancements to your account: Things like having multiple characters, paying for skill training, and other premium services
    Convenience consumables: Things that your characters might want to use in–game in lieu of relying on always having specialist characters with you while you adventure, or as a way to recover from an encounter that goes horribly awry
    Bling: Visual displays that have no in–game mechanical effect, such as specialized clothing, decorations for buildings, and interesting–looking mounts.
    Theme park adventure content: In–game modules that you can unlock for yourself and your friends

    From time to time we may offer a variety of other things that are linked to Skymetal Bits—things like access to Pathfinder Online conventions, real–world apparel, or other such merchandise.

    The Skymetal Bits store will not sell much in the way of items with in–game mechanical benefits. You won't be able to use Skymetal Bits to purchase awesome arms and armor, or magic items, or the ability to summon powerful entities to slay your foes. In other words, you won't be able to bypass the need to play the game in order for your characters to become more skilled and powerful over time.

    Some players will opt to have a recurring monthly subscription. Subscribers will have a predefined package of benefits that will remain available as long as their subscriptions are paid, without needing to buy and spend Skymetal Bits for those benefits. If they choose to stop their subscription payments, they can still buy Skymetal Bits to continue to apply those benefits. In general, though, the subscription price will be lower than the price of the Skymetal Bits you'd need to acquire all of the things that subscribers get, so if you want a lot of those benefits, you'll likely want to subscribe.

    Some things in the Skymetal Bit store will not be automatic subscription benefits, so subscribers can also buy and spend Skymetal Bits if they wish.

    Seems like we got ourselves a fusion between DDO and EVE at this stage.
    Oh, and they got a PLEX-like system (pointed out as such by the devs):
    We are planning on allowing one item from the Skymetal Bit store to also be sold in–game for coin: skill training packages. This has two important consequences:

    First, players who want to spend money on the game can use Skymetal Bits to buy skill training, and then sell that training, via the in–game market, for coin. In essence, they'll be able to "buy" coin with real money.

    Second, players who don't want to spend money on the game will be able to continue training their characters essentially for free, as long as they're generating enough coin in the game to buy that skill training.

    This is a win/win for both groups of players, and reduces the scope and effort so–called "gold farmers" will waste trying to compete for your business—which is also good for Goblinworks, as those people are sources of constant problems for MMO companies, including fraud and identify theft.

    This system will work very much like PLEX works in EVE Online. PLEX has proved to be extremely successful at reducing the effects of gold farmers, and at making it easier for casual players to enjoy the game without requiring them to put in massive effort to raise in–game funds. We expect to see the same positive outcome in Pathfinder Online.

    For more details on in-game/out-game economy, and accounts, see their blog:

    https://goblinworks.com/blog/

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  • SquiddyBiscuitSquiddyBiscuit Registered User regular
    Update on their crafting system (WIP)

    20120411-Blog1.jpg
    (In this blog's diagrams, the biohazard symbol denotes things that typically come from PvE content; the hammer-and-sickle represents things that come from non-dangerous harvesting. Green is food, orange is coin, grey is natural resources, and purple is organic or manufactured components. Red indicates magical items. Blended colors represent multiple types of component.)

    Plenty of more diagrams and info on their blog detailing what you do with all the harvested stuff.

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  • SquiddyBiscuitSquiddyBiscuit Registered User regular
    Oh, dear...

    Remember how the developers said they had an awesome plan to quickly develop and fund PO?

    Well...

    you're their plan.

    Kickstarter.

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  • JediNightJediNight Registered User regular
    Oh, dear...

    Remember how the developers said they had an awesome plan to quickly develop and fund PO?
    Well...
    you're their plan.
    Kickstarter.

    I wasn't sure about the Kickstarter thing, but I think it was blatantly obvious from all the detailed design documents they've released before even writing any code, that they were shopping around for venture capital....

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