Pathfinder Adventures Dev Blogs

So if you buy the game on pc you get all the content on mobile too, but those of us who already bought the Rise of the runelords bundle must buy everything again to play on pc? Am I understanding this correctly?

Thanks for the update.

 

Regarding being an existing user on a mobile platform, the Pc Steam version, linking accounts, DLC and existing content please confirm the following:

 

1. I purchase Pathfinder Adventures Obsidian Edition on Steam.

 

2. I open Pathfinder Adventures on Steam and all the content I expect is available.

 

3. I update my mobile version of Pathfinder Adventures

 

4. I then link my Steam Pathfinder Adventures to my mobile Pathfinder Adventures.

 

5. My Steam and mobile accounts successfully link.

 

6. All the content is now available on both Steam and mobile Pathfinder Adventures for me to enjoy.

 

7. If I had multiple copies of treasure cards, they are now available on Steam Pathfinder Adventures for me as well as the gold that I had accumulated and any dice I had unlocked.

 

8. I close the Steam Pathfinder Adventures

 

9. I open Pathfinder Adventures on my mobile device

 

10. All the content that was previously available to me is there as I expect it to be as well as any Promos, Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Legendary treasure cards that I did not have a copy of and some Legendary dice.

Those puffed up tutorials is a good new indeed to new players.

Most of the rest... well They Are familiar from other apps.

But seems to be good update!

So we can pay for a premium game and still get freemium cheater crap? Wow, that's just great.

I hope with the new content, - or even with existing content - that there will be some kind of significant difficulty increase to come. As of now, with treasure card-based boons thrown in by default, combined with these one-use rune bonuses, I worry that players may find the game difficulty trivial once they have a vague grasp of the mechanics. I didn't find the Rise of the Runelords adventure path difficult to start with as-is, so I really don't particularly see the need here.

Of course I'm going to buy it...

Day one all-in purchaser here and man, this app is going more and more in a direction i would not want it to. Best of luck, but I'm probably out with this one.  

 

I just wanted the board game in app form, and instead we are getting p2w mechanics, more p2w mechanics layered on unneeded freemium mechanics, and ultimately everything but what is actually needed - content. 

 

Literally 20+ extra classes, 3 other sets, or the custom made content to choose from and you decide on a stash and charms/runes.   This update is better than playing as a Ranger, Alchemist, Bard, Inquisitor or any of the other variations of unique classes that exist.  Maybe one day you will get there, but it's been over a year and I don't see much light at the end of the tunnel for myself and my relationship with this game.  

 

All the best either way. I stress over and over again that my feedback is from a perspective that I want you guys to succeed mixed with my own personal preferences. 

Any concessions to those of use who literally just both ROTR in the Mobile app in anticipation of the PC release. It feels an awful lot like I just wasted $25 buck...

ultimately everything but what is actually needed - content.  Literally 20+ extra classes, 3 other sets, or the custom made content to choose from ... a Ranger, Alchemist, Bard, Inquisitor or any of the other variations of unique classes that exist.

Obsidian, I want to second this point.

 

Content would get you more paying users who care. P2W freemium shiny things might attract whales, and I understand one big whale means​ more payroll despite undercutting the overall game quality. But that hurts the community too, no?

 

a) I like Quest mode and am astounded you are removing it AFTER developing it and making it stable. I prefer it to story mode and primarily play it. So of course you will delete that. ???

 

b) You made content unlocking by gameplay possible, and offered an (apparent) "just pay for all content" option -- but that didn't​ unlock all content! From my POV, unlocking only my desired characters and occasionally getting a few chests w/winnings makes much more sense than buying the whole game for $25. Why? Bc the mobile game market price point is generally $3-$5 w/IAPS of $1-$3. Your price point made your game unwanted to many players (even now) and disappointing to those who spent $25. You could still fix this, somehow.

 

c) Somewhere in here, one could imagine exists the pure card game version. But now w/runes/charms you are corrupting that. I think its a mistake.

 

d) Playing this game (still one of my favs) is agreeing to follow limited options constantly. The UI makes me feel limited, not empowered. Having a glow on next move options is a great idea -- making it too dim AND not show all the options available is a UI mistake. The awkward build party screen, the locked phases, the painful progression in levels, the inability to rename characters or change pictures or scribble on a card, the inability to flag hated cards as crap, the difficulty moving cards to the correct gameboard locations, the bizarre new costumed classes IAPs -- these were all choices made which IMO hurt the game in different ways.

 

e) I still play this game and still like it, despite all the challenges. Because underneath, the core concept of a card RPG where heroes progress between adventures, is awesome. I hope it gets immitated and improved upon.

 

Last points -- I had great experiences with your support folks, who kept me happy despite the Daily Gold feature being all messed up. They made me stay loyal.

 

The community helped me figure out this game better than the tutorial. Adding % chances doesn't improve the game IMO. Remember when Han Solo said, "Never tell me the odds!"

 

The shiny overpriced dice, the only slightly better treasures, and the chance to encounter purchased items <-- these didn't make me want to pay or play or make me loyal.

 

*It was solving the adventure and progressing the party.*

 

If your game had simply given 10gold every 3 hours reward for logging in, you would've kept average mobile players.

 

Rewards keep people playing, not more stuff to buy in a storefront.

 

IMO it's the abundant storefronts in modern games -- offering DLC (which is another way of saying 'You can't have the full game without us getting more of your $'), gameplay unbalancing single use items, or special hair/outfits for your avatars -- which kills modern games. Or hurts them a lot.

 

Anyway, whatever you do with this game now, I will still try to play it. But gee, I would've much more happily paid actual money for real expansions rather than this new fluff.

@Fade2Gray, e-mail support. They are reasonable people. I'm not saying it will definitely work, but you can give it a shot.

The only thing to lose is digital ink and digital time.

Hey, everyone. Brandon here. I'm a designer on Pathfinder Adventures. I just wanted to answer a few questions and give some clarification on points we have discussed over the past few days. I will likely post this in response to a few different threads so feel free to post this anywhere you think people might have these questions/comments. Thanks, everyone.

 

• "I've already spent a significant amount of money on your mobile version. Why do I have to repurchase the game on PC?"

This is a good question and if I were in your shoes I'd ask the same thing.

 

The PC version of the game is not using a free-to-play model for revenue generation. There are both business and technical reasons for this. This means folks that purchased content on the mobile version of the game will need to repurchase the content on Steam or GOG.

That said, we are working on a way to hook up players who have purchased a lot of content for the mobile game. Things like free upgrades and coupons to lower the price. I don't have any specifics right now, but that info should be coming out soon.

 

• "If I merge my PC/Android/iOS accounts, does that mean I will see all of my unlocked/purchased content on all of these platforms?"

Yup. For example, if you had some special promo cards on your iOS account and you merged it with the PC, they would show up on the PC build of your game - even if we don't have that content for purchase on the PC. It works in reverse too. If you purchased the Obsidian Edition on Steam and linked your accounts you would unlock the treasure cards on your mobile versions.

 

• "Why didn't you just make more content? All I wanted was more content."

Two things: content is by far the most time consuming thing that the team works on AND the Pathfinder team is only a handful of people.

 

We felt it was really important to put out a PC version of the game. It is probably the best way for us to expand our user base. We have had most of the team focused on creating this build for the past few months. Because the team is small, we can really only be focused on one thing at a time. This meant that content creation was getting pushed off a bit.

 

While pushing off content creation isn't ideal, we felt it was the best for the long term health of the product. More people playing equals more money equals more content for the game. It sounds like a cold calculation, but it is the reality of the situation. Same goes for the Asmodee deal. Working with Asmodee expands the game's reach and gives us a better chance to create more content for the game.

 

At this point, we have started making more content again. You guys know about the Goblin campaign we are working on, but we also have some other things we hope people will like. We'll be able to talk about it in the next few weeks, I think.

 

• "Why did you create Feature X? Nobody's asking for it and I don't think it adds anything to the game."

Most of these new features were requests or designs from me. All of these features came out of a want to make the game more accessible to current and new users. In particular, I was focused on making the game easier to get into and more intuitive for people.

 

I realize that some people think the game is way too easy, but the vast majority of new folks that play the game don't understand how it works right off the bat. You can only tutorialize so much before people stop paying attention so there is a fine line to walk. This is an important thing for the team to resolve. 

 

The board game version of the game has the benefit of knowing that the users will read through the entire instructions before they ever start their first game. This means that the first scenario can immediately start with very little ramp up. By necessity the digital game needs to be more user friendly.

 

So, in that vein, we attempted to make UI and current features more intuitive - even if it diverged from the board game a bit. While I feel there are still things we can add to the game to help, I feel like we were successful.

 

In other updates we will be adding in other features that the community has identified, so be on the lookout for that in the future.

 

• "Why did you add in consumables (Runes/Charms)?"

There are a few reasons for this.

 

First, they can really help new players get past a scenario or situation that they are having a difficult time with. I don't expect that players will be using these items for all instances, but it does allow them to get out of bad situations. This also applies to folks trying out harder difficulties.

 

Second, this gives us something to allow PC users to purchase with gold. Originally, we were going to remove gold from the PC version, but these consumable items allow players to spend their earned gold on bonuses in the game.

 

Lastly, this will also help out the mobile monetization. If people enjoy using these items they can purchase (or grind) additional gold to get more.

 

It's important to note that players don't need to use any of these consumables. They are there for folks that need a little boost to complete some content or get out of a jam, but they are never required to complete the content. If you would prefer an experience closer to the card game, you can safely ignore those UI buttons and you should have the same experience that you are able to get right now.

 

• "Have you considered a difficulty increase for the current (or new) content?"

It's unlikely that we would increase the difficult of current content, but we are exploring how to make the game more difficult in future content. I have some ideas and once we announce new content I can get into the specifics.

 

• "Why did you remove quest mode?"

Unfortunately, with the size of our team, it was too difficult to keep quest mode running while also creating new content. The decision was to focus our team on creating new content instead of new quest mode content. We are also sad to see it go, but it is the right decision at this time. Removing quest mode should also resolve other bugs and issues that were being caused by it. These weren't insignificant and should make for a better experience.