Pathfinder Online

[Regolyth]

It looks like the game is progressing nicely. I like what I'm seeing so far.

[Morreion]

Pathfinder Online's Ryan Dancey on crowdforging a 'minimum viable product' (Massively)

The core game loop

To make our MVP, we had to figure out what the smallest number of features were needed to implement a compelling game loop with meaningful human interactions. We decided that our loop would have two interconnected segments.

Segment one would be finding monsters in the world, killing them, and taking their stuff.
Segment two would be finding resources, harvesting those resources, and turning the resources into crafted goods.
The interconnection would be that the stuff one character crafted would make another character better at killing monsters.

We also accepted that there would be a complication of this interconnection:

Killing another character and taking its stuff would be a shortcut.

We have a grand plan for where our game will eventually take us that involves vast territorial battles for control of the map, fought by huge organizations of players collectively working together for common purpose. We imagine a time when players can build characters that are experts in a wide range of careers from soldier to diplomat to teamster to spy and hundreds more. But for the purposes of our MVP, we think we can be viable with the game loop described above. Everything else can (and will) come later.

Pathfinder Online opens new storefront, posts first video dev blog (Massively)

The studio has revamped its website and opened a new store it's calling the Goblin Squad Store, a "portal for merchandise that is currently only available to Goblin Squad members." The store appears to be a way for would-be backers to toss some (or more) cash at the developers even though the Kickstarter has ended. In return, gamers can select from a lengthy list of add-ons both physical and digital, including tabletop miniatures, forum titles, gametime, and even a swanky messenger bag.

If you're keen more on learning about the game than on funding it, the team's new video blog might be of more interest. The first of planned biweekly episodes went live tonight and features Goblinworks' Lee Hammock and Stephen Cheney explaining how slots and divine powers work in the game.

Tabletop to Desktop: Making Wizards Work in Pathfinder Online (Massively)

Greg Tito: Being forced to discover or buy spells to add to your spellbook is a very neat detail. Once the game ages a bit, will the joy of discovery be diluted?

Ryan Dancey, CEO of Goblinworks: For me the key thing is to avoid the pitfall of a small cartel of people who have access to certain spells while the rest of the players don't. There should be no meaningful lasting advantage to being an early adopter of the game other than that built up by consistent careful resource management and large social structures. Mechanically, every player should have a clear path to obtaining any resource the game offers without having to compete against an entrenched cartel.

That implies that spell research should remain a viable part of the game throughout its lifecycle, as new players will constantly be coming to the game and needing to build their libraries of magical effects. It may be that very experienced characters reach a point of diminishing returns on that kind of research, but we should by then have built so many other game systems that there will always be something interesting to challenge them.

Pathfinder Online's devs on dynamic escalations and new races (Massively)

"Escalation" is the team's fancy term for one of the game's many dynamic, hex-shaped zones that are reserved for monster spawns and can over time, well, escalate and expand to neighboring hexes, ramping up in scale and difficulty with elite bosses. Multiple escalation themes are discussed in the video, including escalations that allow participants to do something other than beat mobs into submission.

Pathfinder Online announces a second guild land rush (Massively)

Pathfinder Online's Lee Hammock today announced the three winners of Goblinworks' promotional guild competition: The Empyrean Order, Pax Aeternum, and The Seventh Veil. The guilds will helm the first three PC settlements when the game hits early enrollment.

But you don't care because you're probably not in any of those guilds, right? So Goblinworks hopes to command your attention with a new account system that will pave the way for you to claim a chunk of the game world for you and your mates. Anyone's who's bought a crowdforger or early enrollment package for the game can form a guild for this second "Land Rush," which will go on for 10 weeks and allow teams to jockey for position and territory long before the game goes live.

Pathfinder set to begin NDA-free alpha (Massively)

Dancey also points out that alpha really does mean alpha, but even so, GoblinWorks will not restrict testers with any sort of NDA.

Pathfinder Online details the War of Towers (Massively)

Dubbed the War of Towers, the system will reward players for capturing and controlling towers near one of the existing Settlements, allowing those Settlements to advance and improve in new directions. There's a video available just past the break that explains the details of how this tower capturing works, but the short version is that it should at least fill a gap until the full territory control system can be rolled out later.

Pathfinder Online takes crowdforging seriously (Massively)

Goblinworks, whose sandbox MMO Pathfinder Online entered alpha earlier this month, is turning to hopeful players for crowdforging purposes by way of the IdeaScale platform. You've probably seen the concept used for software and mobile development already: Players post mechanics and gameplay suggestions and ideas, and other contributors vote them up to show the developers where to focus time and effort.

The Goblinworks team has highlighted a number of ideas via Twitter, including player books, gender neutrality, clothing dye, beast taming, and terrain as impediment.

Pathfinder Online formally opens alpha to backers (Massively)

"Ladies and Gentlemen and Miscellaneous Humanoids of all Types," wrote Ryan Dancey on the Goblinworks website today, "It is my great pleasure to announce that we are beginning the formal Alpha Test of Pathfinder Online."

According to Dancey, invitations are now en route to Kickstarter backers and everyone who purchased alpha access through the official game store, so check your email if you ponied up. You can also check out the release notes to clue you in on what's in the alpha and what isn't quite.

Pathfinder Online releases new alpha client (Massively)

The new client includes better lighting, animation fixes, coin drops from mobs, additional utility feats, and a better distribution of resource nodes. NPCs have also been given a speed boost to cut down on the ease of kiting by players.

[Morreion]

Pathfinder Online lays off almost entire staff


Pathfinder Online lays off almost entire staff (MOP)

Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens has announced to Pathfinder Online supporters that the majority of the Goblinworks team working on the game has been laid off.

We knew we needed a certain amount of money to finish to build the game, and we came really damn close, but we just couldn’t find the last bit of funding that we needed. […] Last Friday, we had to lay off most of the staff. […] I couldn’t pay them anymore. We gave them lots of warning, so they all knew this was coming.

CTO Mark Kalms, Art Director Mike Hines, and Designer Bob Settles are all that remain of the studio. According to Stevens, Goblinworks CEO Ryan Dancey left the company two weeks ago for personal reasons unrelated to the layoffs. Lee Hammock and Steven Cheney were also apparently among those let go.

Work on the game will continue with the three remaining employees, paid by existing subscription revenue, which will also keep the servers online. Paizo is closing the Goblinworks office and moving the trio into the Paizo offices. Stevens says Paizo is seeking an external publisher to buy Goblinworks or investors to complete the game. There is hope, she says, since 75% of the game is already paid for; she expects the game will take between 1 million and 2 million dollars to finish.

Stevens further hints that the game’s original Kickstarter was intended to speed up the project and was predicated on additional investment commitments that didn’t fully materialize. Another Kickstarter, she says, is not planned as the team is still working on existing Kickstarter rewards.

When asked what the community can do, she suggested that continuing to play and pay the early enrollment subscription, inviting new players, and treating new players well is most helpful.

Our sympathies extend to the entire studio and its players.


Comment:

It is sad, but it is hard to feel sorry for them when they went completely against the grain, in an opposing direction of what they've worked so hard to build in their tabletop game.


I love Pathfinder tabletop. It's a hell of a lot of fun if played with a competent DM. However, Pathfinder Online is FAR from Pathfinder tabletop, therefore, the IP is completely wasted IMHO!

Pathfinder tabletop is a cooperative PvE game, NOT a PvP game. PvP makes absolutely no sense and unfortunately sounds to me like Paizo may have been the woman in the white dress being sold the ketchup popsicle -- if you get my meaning.

It's a shame, but this is the EXACT reason why it is so critical for game companies to find competent CEOs and Lead Designers that understand their product and their market and know the direction to steer the company and game in question.

CEOs and Lead Designers need to understand the business and the market they are in! Being a gamer or fan of the genre with game development skills is not enough IMHO. Mr. Dancey clearly did not understand the market, not only for Pathfinder itself, but in general! That much is obvious. The decision-making with this game was pretty mind-boggling to say the least.


Regardless, best of luck to everyone there, including Mr. Dancey. While this is a tough experience for all involved, it is a learning experience nonetheless.

The Daily Grind: Have you played Pathfinder Online? (MOP)

Comments (I couldn't find a good one on the first page):

I'm still stunned at how they even let them use the pathfinder IP for this thing. Jack and squat are about all it has to do with the pathfinder rpg.

And what really astounds me is the lack of reality that the devs have. Are they not paying attention to the feedback they are getting? Its like they are intent on making a game no one wants to play regardless of what everyone is telling them. Is it ego? Is it someone's wet dream to make this exact game? The blind ambition to continue down this path and polish this turd is beyond me.

There are a few dozen people who pat the devs on the back and enable them to keep going down the train wreck path this game is on.

I tried the free trial. IMO it's far far too early to play for enjoyment, and even further from actually paying for it. Maybe some early adopters can enjoy the rugged/sparse aspect of it, but not me.

This game had a lot of potential for me back during the kickstarter and earlier when they were writing all their plans on the website. Unfortunately they decided to use an engine from the early 2000's and animations that are cringe worthy. I may perhaps take a look at it when it finally releases. But I really have no interest in this game after seeing how it played.

The saddest thing to me after following this since the kickstarter is that a true-to-the-material Pathfinder MMORPG probably would be a "themepark" game with a bunch of quests and zones tied to the various Adventure Paths they've published for the tabletop game. I can see a River Kingdoms zone being the PvP zone, but to make the whole game about it is ignoring a whole bunch of what has gone into making the "Pathfinder" name mean something.

Not only are they charging for a game in this state, but they have promised no wipes and when you combine that with the way you get XP over time it basicly means that if you wait for the game to get to any possible "good" state you will be way, way behind veteran characters and the game is all about PvP.

I have played it, as a backer I had some free game time. It just isn't at a point to where I can enjoy it. The new player experience is really poor at the moment, lacking greatly in in-game tutorial or explanations. If you can get through that I don't know if you'll find something worthwhile beyond, I spent a few hours in it just not having fun and not being able to find what I wanted. I was never ganked, but then as a new player it isn't like I had anything worth taking. It also is Pathfinder in name only, so if you are familiar with the setting of Golarion, or the rules of Pathfinder, you can set those aside and just assume it is a generic fantasy EVE. I plan to check back with it in a year or so, see how it has progressed and if it might be more playable then. Progress seems slow from a player perspective, but it is a small team and they are making updates.

I think the people at Goblinworks live in cloud cuckoo land if they think they can charge a standard 15 dollar a month subscription fee for this game in a market flooded with far better free to play and buy to play games and for it to attract enough players for it to be successful . Why don't they try a 7.50 subscription ? its not written in stone that it has to be 15 dollars a month you know .

I backed their second Kickstarter, partly because Lee Hammock was involved, partly because the PvE mob escalation is a system I've wanted to see for over ten years. However, at this point, I don't feel it's worth using the sub time I have - the game is still early development, and all they ever talk about in their updates is PvP, PvP, PvP. PvP is not the part I was interested in. :/

Absolutely horrendous game that has already dropped it's box fee. They still charge a $15 sub and have a cash shop. The game has a hardcore base of around 20 players who will visit every site and talk the game up. There is absolutely NOTHING this game does well and NOTHING that is not done better in other games. The CEO is a known troll who publicly blames his player base for not recruiting enough. The worst part of the game is that it is obviously in some sort of equivalency to Alpha testing or very early Beta but they have promised no wipes. That's a ridiculous thing to do in a game based around PvP. Pay us for 2 years while we actually make the game or you will have no chance to be competitive when you start. The game uses a time based XP system so each hour you sub you earn some XP. I think it's 100 an hour. If that's right and you join about 2 years from when it opened (Jan 2015 to Jan 2017 when it "might" be reasonably complete) you would be almost 1.7 MILLION XP behind the curve. ROFL This one deserves to die.